HBO Sports returns to the vibrant junior middleweight division when one of 2018’s breakout stars defends his crown for the first time on HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: JAIME MUNGUIA VS. LIAM SMITH AND ALBERTO MACHADO VS. RAFAEL MENSAH, presented SATURDAY, JULY 21 at 10:00 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from the Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas. The HBO Sports team will call all the action, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.
Two months ago, Jaime Munguia (29-0, 25 KOs) made an impressive HBO debut, scoring a resounding fourth-round KO of junior middleweight titleholder Sadam Ali. Now, the 25-year-old native of Tijuana, Baja Calif, Mexico defends his title against the UK’s formidable Liam Smith (26-1-1, 14 KOs), 29, in a 12-round clash that promises to produce fireworks.
The co-feature spotlights Alberto Machado (19-0, 16 KOs) defending his super featherweight title against No. 1 contender Rafael Mensah (31-0, 23 KOs) in a 12-round battle. Machado, 27, hails from San Juan, Puerto Rico; Mensah, also 27, is a native of Accra, Ghana, and has 12 more pro bouts than the champ.
This doubleheader marks the 39th consecutive year that HBO Boxing has televised a fight card from Las Vegas.
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All HBO boxing events are presented in HDTV. HBO viewers must have access to the HBO HDTV channel to watch HBO programming in high definition.
The executive producer of HBO Sports is Rick Bernstein; producer, Dave Harmon; director, Johnathan Evans.
® HBO BOXING AFTER DARK is a registered service mark of Home Box Office, Inc.
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LIAM SMITH will be fired up by critics who have trashed his chances of taking the WBO super-welterweight title challenge from Jaime Munguia in Las Vegas on Saturday July 21.
The Liverpool boxer will be attempting to regain the title he lost against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in September 2016 when their clash drew 51,000 fans to the AT&T Stadium in Dallas.
Munguia, 21, has won all 29 professional fights with 25 wins coming by KO. He caused an upset in May when he ripped the title from Sadam Ali – stopping the defending champion in four rounds.
But Smith is ready to ruin the Mexican’s first defence at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and earn himself huge unification clashes that will set him up for life.
Smith, 29, said ahead of the fight that will be shown by BT Sport: “I will be gutted if I don’t win this fight.
“I am a little bit more hungry because a few people have written me off so I’m gonna make them eat their words.
“It has given me a little bit more fire. I want to become a world champion again.”
“Munguia is a good fighter. He is big for the weight and it doesn’t take a genius to see he can punch.
“He is one of those young, enthusiastic fighters who is trying to make a statement in every fight and he’s just getting better and better.
“It is winnable, but it is what a world title fight should be. I’m a challenger, on the road and it should be a tough fight.”
Smith whose only defeat in 28 fights came against Canelo is taking little notice of Munguia’s win against Ali.
He explained: “Sadam Ali was in the right place, right time when he beat Miguel Cotto to win the title, but I still thought he might have had too much nous for Munguia.
“I watched Munguia in February before there was talk of him fighting any of the names and classed him as a decent prospect who was coming through.
“Apart from Sadam he hasn’t fought any one of note. If you look at his record there is not one other person there where you’d say, ‘Look he has beaten, him’.
“The way the fight happened I wasn’t fully surprised because it was basically a middleweight against a welterweight.
“I am not small for a super-welterweight though and that is one reason why I am not fazed by this. I’m big enough myself and confident in my own size.”
If Smith wins he will become the first two-time world champion from Liverpool and is the first scouser to top the bill in the world’s fight capital.
He said: “For someone who didn’t want to box as a kid I’ve fought Canelo in Dallas, and now I am topping the bill in Las Vegas on BT Sport and HBO.”