HBO Boxing Kicks Off Saturday Night at 9:45 PM

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING^®: JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR. VS. BRYAN VERA II AND ORLANDO SALIDO VS. VASYL LOMACHENKO, FEATURING TWO BIG TEXAS SHOWDOWNS, PRESENTED SATURDAY, MARCH 1, EXCLUSIVELY ON HBO

One of boxing’s biggest names makes his 2014 debut in a major rematch and a two-time gold medalist from Ukraine goes for a world title when WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: JULIO CESAR CHAVEZ JR. VS. BRYAN VERA II ANDORLANDO SALIDO VS. VASYL LOMACHENKO is seen SATURDAY, MARCH 1 at 9:45 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from the Alamodome in San Antonio, exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team of Jim Lampley, Max Kellerman and Roy Jones Jr. will call the action, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.

Other HBO playdates: March 2 (9:00 a.m.) and 4 (midnight)

HBO2 playdates: March 2 (4:30 p.m.) and 3 (11:00 p.m.)

In the main event, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (47-1-1, 32 KOs) of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, and Austin’s Bryan Vera (23-7, 14 KOs) meet in a highly anticipated 12-round super middleweight rematch. Making his 2014 debut after fighting just once last year, Chavez Jr., 28, returns to the site of one his most impressive wins, a unanimous decision victory over Marco Antonio Rubio in Feb. 2012. In a hotly debated verdict last September, Chavez Jr., who faced weight issues during fight week, scored a ten-round victory over Vera.

Despite absorbing his seventh career loss, the hard-nosed Vera’s performance against the heavily favored Chavez Jr. earned him enormous respect. Trained in Houston by the well-regarded Ronnie Shields, the 32-year-old battle-tested veteran can leap to the top level of the 168-pound division with a win.

Opening the telecast is a 12-round featherweight title fight that has fascinated the boxing world. The formidable Orlando Salido (40-12-2, 28 KOs), 33, of Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico captured the vacant 126-pound crown last October with a seventh-round knockout of Orlando Cruz. His opponent, Ukraine native Vasyl Lomachenko (1-0, 1 KO), won gold at both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, and scored an impressive fourth-round knockout of seasoned pro Jose Luis Ramirez last October in his first bout since declaring himself a pro. Named prospect of the year by Yahoo Sports.com and ESPN.com in December, the 26-year-old Lomachenko will now seek to take a world title from a crafty vet.

Fans can get a revealing inside look at fighters in the main event and preview the action with the special “Road to Chavez Jr./Vera II.”  The special will replay throughout the month in the lead-up to the fight.

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

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 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is Rick Bernstein; producer, Dave Harmon; director, Johnathan Evans.

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

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