HBO to debut 2 Days: Portrait of a Fighter on Saturday

HBO will unveil a new boxing series Saturday night before its “World Championship Boxing” doubleheader from San Antonio.

The 15-minute debut of “2 Days: Portrait of a Fighter” will feature former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios and will air at 9:45 p.m. ET. The series will detail the 48 hours of a boxer’s life before he steps into the ring to fight.

The episode on Rios (29-0-1, 22 KOs) will show what the Oxnard, Calif., fighter went through as he tried to make weight for an eventual 11th-round TKO victory over England’s John Murray (31-2, 18 KOs) on Dec. 3 at Madison Square Garden. Rios weighed in three time for the Murray fight on Dec. 2, but couldn’t get down to the lightweight limit of 135 pounds and was stripped of his WBA title.

The series will be followed immediately by a doubleheader that’ll feature a 12-round main event between WBC middleweight title-holder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (44-0-1, 31 KOs) and fellow Mexican Marco Antonio Rubio (53-5-1, 46 KOs). The 12-round, co-featured fight will pit Nonito Donaire (27-1, 18 KOs), of San Leandro, Calif., against Puerto Rico’s Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (21-1-1, 18 KOs) for the WBO super bantamweight title.

The second episode of “2 Days: Portrait of a Fighter” will feature junior middleweight contender James Kirkland (30-1, 27 KOs). It’ll debut Feb. 25 at 9:45 p.m. ET, immediately preceding a “World Championship Boxing” doubleheader from St. Louis consisting of two 12-rounders — St. Louis’ Devon Alexander (22-1, 13 KOs) against Argentina’s Marcos Maidana (31-2, 28 KOs) and Cincinnati’s Adrien Broner (22-0, 18 KOs) against Eloy Perez (23-0-2, 7 KOs), of Salinas, Calif.

Kirkland, of Austin, Texas, is scheduled to return to the ring March 24, in a 12-round WBC elimination match against Chicago’s Carlos Molina (19-4-2, 6 KOs). HBO will televise that fight from Houston, right before a main event that’ll match Mexico’s Erik Morales (52-7, 36 KOs) against Philadelphia’s Danny Garcia (22-0, 14 KOs) in a 12-rounder for Morales’ WBC 140-pound championship.

gomez1012 wrote:HBO to debut new series that nobody fucking cares about

Where the hell is a new series of LEGENDARY NIGHTS??????

GrantZilla wrote:

gomez1012 wrote:HBO to debut new series that nobody fucking cares about

Where the hell is a new series of LEGENDARY NIGHTS??????

I do not know what HBO's objective is for these kind of things. I'd imagine it's to try and get casual fans familiar with these guys. But casual fans are not going to watch this shit. Only hardcore fans will watch and we already know who these guys are and what their story is.

It's like their Freddie Roach series. It's premiere got less than 200k viewers. That's bad even for HBO.

Gumby wrote:It's only 15 minutes. I think they just want better pre and post fight material over their usual puff pieces. I definitely felt like I learned some stuff about Rios. I think most people who got sucked in after watching a fight would enjoy it.

GrantZilla wrote:I'd imagine it's to try and get casual fans familiar with these guys. But casual fans are not going to watch this shit. Only hardcore fans will watch and we already know This is an excellent site I love it who these guys are and what their story is.

Rum Capital wrote:anyone see sergio's last night?
dude actually wants to be a comedian

Hagler's Bald Head wrote:

Rum Capital wrote:anyone see sergio's last night?
dude actually wants to be a comedian

That was Ring Life.

Hagler's Bald Head wrote:After finally catching this I just don't known why Rios is even going to attempt to make Lightweight again, sure it's for money and a name opponent but it's so obvious that his body has outgrown that division. I actually fear for his health in this fight.

captainanddew wrote:and even when making weight it is bull. There should be a certain % of your weight that you can rehydrate. He and Chavez Jr. have gone to a similar playbook. Practically kill yourself to make weight and then use your size advantage to win.

I think both are going to struggle when they move up to 168 and 140, respectively, and don't have a big size advantage.