Hopkins-Pascal II Kicks Off on HBO at 10 PM ET With Dawson-Diaconu

HBO SPORTS HEADS NORTH OF THE BORDER FOR AN EXPLOSIVE

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT DOUBLEHEADER WHEN

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING^®:  JEAN PASCAL VS. BERNARD HOPKINS II

AND CHAD DAWSON VS. ADRIAN DIACONU

IS SEEN LIVE SATURDAY, MAY 21 ON HBO

HBO Sports serves up a double dose of hard-hitting action when WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING:  JEAN PASCAL VS. BERNARD HOPKINS II AND CHAD DAWSON VS. ADRIAN DIACONU is presented live SATURDAY, MAY 21 (10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT) from the Bell Centre in Montreal, exclusively on HBO.  The WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING team will be ringside for the event, which will be closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired, presented in HDTV and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.

Other HBO playdates:  May 22 (11:00 a.m.) and 23 (11:15 p.m.)

HBO2 playdates:  May 22 (4:30 p.m.) and 24 (11:00 p.m.)

Light heavyweight titleholder Jean Pascal (26-1-1, 16 KOs) will go toe-to-toe in his hometown with one of boxing’s legendary figures, former middleweight and former light heavyweight champ Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KOs) of Philadelphia in a highly anticipated 12-round title rematch.  In his second appearance on HBO, following an upset of Chad Dawson last August, the Haitian-born Pascal is notorious for his lighting speed ring movement and virtually indefensible flurries of punches.

Making his 18th appearance on HBO, the ageless Bernard Hopkins has fought some of the most intriguing fights of the last ten years, including memorable showdowns with Felix Trinidad, Oscar de la Hoya, Antonio Tarver and Kelly Pavlik.  Now 46, he is once again in peak physical shape, enabling him to be quicker and fresher at the end of fights than younger opponents.

Pascal and Hopkins originally faced off last December in Quebec City, with the bout ending in a hard-fought draw.  Although Pascal had him reeling early on, Hopkins maintained his composure and dominated the later rounds.  Now, Hopkins seeks to claim the glory and the title that eluded him last December.  If he beats Pascal, Hopkins will become the oldest world champion in boxing history.

The highly charged opening bout features two former light heavyweight titleholders, as Chad Dawson (29-1, 17 KOs) of New Haven, Conn. meets Romanian powerhouse Adrian Diaconu (27-2, 15 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round bout.  This is a pivotal fight for Dawson, who seeks to rebound from his first professional loss with the help of his new trainer, Hall of Famer Emanuel Steward.  The hard-hitting Diaconu views the bout as a golden opportunity to regain his former glory in the light heavyweight division.

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.

Follow HBO boxing news at hbo.com/boxing, on Facebook at facebook.com/hboboxing and on Twitter at twitter.com/hboboxing.

The executive producer of WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is Rick Bernstein; producer, Dave Harmon; director, Marc Payton.

® WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is a registered service mark of Home Box Office, Inc.

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