''Boxing After Dark'' is an

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, 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 ba ...

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

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'') was 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 (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

's ''

Friday Night Fights The cable television network ESPN has occasionally broadcast boxing events over the majority of its history, as part of several arrangements, including contracts with specific promotions and consortiums such as Golden Boy Promotions, Premier ...

'' 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 Jason John Litzau (born June 29, 1983) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 2002 and 2016. He challenged once for the IBF featherweight title in 2008. Early life In his youth Litzau played Little League Baseball, as a pi ...

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 HBO (previously known as HBO Canada, and still referred to as such on social media) is a Canadian premium television network from Crave (formerly The Movie Network), which is owned by Bell Media. The channel is primarily devoted to original prog ...

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 was best known as a blow-by-blow announcer on '' HBO World Championship Boxing'' for 30 years. He also had covered a record 14 ...

and

Larry Merchant Larry Merchant (born Larry Kaufman; February 11, 1931) is an American sportswriter, a longtime commentator for HBO sports presentations of '' HBO World Championship Boxing'', ''Boxing After Dark'' and HBO pay-per-view telecasts, called "the gre ...

. 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 world championships in three weight classes, including the WBO junior featherweight title twice betwee ...

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 Emanuel "Manny" Steward (July 7, 1944 – October 25, 2012) was an American boxer, trainer, and commentator for HBO Boxing. He was also called the Godfather of Detroit Boxing. Steward trained 41 world champion fighters throughout his care ...

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 g ...

fights. Replacing them were

Fran Charles Fran Charles (born October 19, 1968) is an American television personality for MLB Network, formerly for NFL Network. Career Charles attended John Burroughs School in Ladue, Missouri; then earned a Bachelor's degree in Communication at Stanford ...

, former

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 Ma ...

analyst

Max Kellerman Max Kellerman (born August 6, 1973) is an American sports television personality and boxing commentator. He is the host of '' This Just In with Max Kellerman'' and the co-host of ''Keyshawn, JWill and Max'' on ESPN Radio. He previously was a co-h ...

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. Biography Hauser graduated from Columbia College in 1967 and Columbia Law School in 1970. He made his debut as a writer in 1978 with ''The ...

) and former world heavyweight champion

Lennox Lewis Lennox Claudius Lewis (born 2 September 1965) is a former professional boxer and boxing commentator who competed from 1989 to 2003. He is a three-time world heavyweight champion, a two-time lineal champion, and the last heavyweight to hol ...

. 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 Robert L. Papa (born September 19, 1964) is an American sportscaster who is currently the radio play-by-play voice for the New York Giants of the National Football League. Papa also is the lead broadcaster for PGA Tour Champions events on Gol ...

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 (NFL) 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 former professional boxer who holds dual American and Russian citizenship. He competed in boxing from 1989 to 2018, and held multiple world championships in four weight classes, incl ...

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 titles in two weight classes, including the unified WBA (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 cla ...

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."

References

{{Use mdy dates, date=April 2016 1996 American television series debuts 1990s American television series 2000s American television series 2010s American television series 2018 American television series endings Boxing television series HBO original programming Boxing on HBO English-language television shows

History

Tenth season revamp

The end of ''Boxing After Dark''

See also

References