Boxing After Dark
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''Boxing After Dark'' is an
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...
program, premiered on February 3, 1996, that usually showed fights between well-known contenders, but usually not "championship" or "title" fights. Unlike its sister program, ''
HBO World Championship Boxing ''HBO World Championship Boxing'' (in later years stylized in its title card as ''HBO Boxing – World Championship'') is an American sports television series on premium television network HBO. It premiered on January 22, 1973, with a fight that ...
'', ''BAD'' featured fighters who were usually moving up from
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
's '' Friday Night Fights'' or another basic cable boxing program. This was where fighters were given their start to become famous depending on how well they fare on ''BAD'' they might have a title fight on ''World Championship Boxing'' or could fall back (Ex: Jason Litzau had many entertaining fights on ESPN before moving up to ''BAD'' to face Jose Hernandez. After Litzau lost by knockout he returned to ''FNF'') It usually aired at least once a month, following a '' World Championship Boxing'' card on HBO. ''Boxing After Dark'' debuted on HBO Canada beginning January 17, 2009 at 9:45 pm. ET/7:45 pm. MT


History

''Boxing After Dark'', or ''BAD'' for short, got its start on February 3, 1996 with commentators
Jim Lampley James Lampley (born April 8, 1949) is an American sportscaster, news anchor, film producer, and restaurant owner. He is best known as a blow-by-blow announcer on ''HBO World Championship Boxing'' for 30 years. He covered a record 14 Olympic ...
and Larry Merchant. The first fight shown was an exciting 12-rounder featuring a then-unknown
Marco Antonio Barrera Marco Antonio Barrera Tapia (born January 17, 1974) is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2011. He held multiple triple champion, world championships in three weight classes between 1995 and 2007, from super bantamwei ...
and Kennedy McKinney. Barrera won by KO. Since then, ''BAD'' has prided itself on promoting fights between lesser-caliber fighters with something to prove, though occasionally well-known fighters, usually those signed by HBO, may make appearances.


Tenth season revamp

In 2006, ''BAD'' entered its tenth season with an all-new lineup. Lampley, Merchant and Emanuel Steward would now call only ''WCB'' and
pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...
fights. Replacing them were Fran Charles, former
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
and
Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by the Walt Disney Company on Mar ...
analyst
Max Kellerman Max Kellerman (born August 6, 1973) is an American sports television personality and boxing commentator. Until his departure from ESPN in June 2023, he was the host of ''This Just In with Max Kellerman'' and the co-host of ''Keyshawn, JWill an ...
who received "something in the neighborhood of $10,000 for each ''Boxing After Dark'' telecast" (according to
Thomas Hauser Thomas C. Hauser (born February 27, 1946) is an American author known for his biographies and novels and writing about boxing. Biography Hauser graduated from Mamaroneck High School in 1963, Columbia College in 1967 and Columbia Law School i ...
) and former world heavyweight champion
Lennox Lewis Lennox Claudius Lewis (born 2 September 1965) is a British-Canadian boxing commentator and former professional boxer who competed in the heavyweight division from 1989 to 2003. He was a three-time world champion, a two-time lineal champion, ...
. Kellerman and Lewis had previously appeared on world championship and pay-per-view events for HBO as analysts and continue to do so. This season has featured mostly fights at lesser weights, a ''BAD'' staple, as well as new theme music and logo. On March 13, 2007, Fran Charles was replaced by Bob Papa due to scheduling conflicts with the
NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League NTP and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and N ...
. Lampley has also on occasion stepped in for Charles and Papa. Beginning in 2013, the teams for ''BAD'' and ''World Championship Boxing'' became identical. Lampley, Kellerman, and
Roy Jones Jr. Roy Levesta Jones Jr. (born January 16, 1969) is an American professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in four weight classes, including middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight. As an amateur he r ...
called all boxing events for HBO with rare exceptions.
Andre Ward Andre Michael Ward (born February 23, 1984) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2017. He retired with an undefeated record and held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including unified super ...
and
Bernard Hopkins Bernard Hopkins Jr. (born January 15, 1965) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2016. He is one of the most successful boxers of the past three decades, having held multiple world championships in two weight class ...
served as substitutes for Jones.


The end of ''Boxing After Dark''

On September 27, 2018, HBO announced they would be dropping boxing from the network following its last televised match on October 27, although there was an additional airing on December 8, 2018. Several reasons were given for the cancellation, including rapidly declining ratings, an increasing number of options for boxing on other channels, surveys that showed boxing was no longer one of the reasons people purchased HBO subscriptions, a lack of marquee boxing contests, and HBO corporate position that the service is "not a sports network."


See also

* ''
HBO World Championship Boxing ''HBO World Championship Boxing'' (in later years stylized in its title card as ''HBO Boxing – World Championship'') is an American sports television series on premium television network HBO. It premiered on January 22, 1973, with a fight that ...
'' (a television boxing program airing on HBO from 1973–2018) * ''
Showtime Championship Boxing ''Showtime Championship Boxing'' is a television boxing program that aired on Showtime (TV network), Showtime. Debuting in March 1986, it was broadcast live on the first Saturday of every month. ''Showtime Championship Boxing'', which was very ...
'' (a television boxing program airing on Showtime from 1986–present) * '' ShoBox: The New Generation'' (a television boxing program airing on Showtime from 2001–present) * '' Premier Boxing Champions'' (a boxing promotion organized by Al Haymon and a television boxing program airing on multiple broadcast and cable networks from 2015–present) * Superfly (boxing)


References

{{Use mdy dates, date=April 2016 1996 American television series debuts 1990s American sports television series 2000s American sports television series 2018 American television series endings Boxing television series HBO original programming Boxing on HBO American English-language television shows