Miguel Cotto vs. Saul Canelo Alvarez: HBO launches premiere of 'Face Off: Cotto/Canelo' on Nov. 14
HBO is set to launch the premiere of “Face Off: Cotto/Canelo" a week before Miguel Cotto defends his World Boxing Council middleweight title against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on Nov. 21 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
HBO will continue its pre-fight coverage leading up to the Cotto-Canelo pay-per-view (PPV) clash as it released another “Face Off” series, which will be aired next Saturday, Nov. 14, at 11:30 pm ET/PT (Nov. 15, 3:30 pm AEDT). The “Face Off” gives opponents a chance to get up close to one another ahead of their boxing match, which includes fielding questions from HBO and HBO PPV events’ commentator Max Kellerman, reports Boxing Scene.
Canelo (45-1-1, 32 KOs), who signed an exclusive contract with HBO last fall after his five-fight stint with Showtime, appears in the series for the first time, while Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) will have his fourth appearance in “Face Off.”
The previous instalment of the series featured multi-titled middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin and David Lemieux, who were accompanied by their respective trainers. Cotto and Canelo will be joined by Freddie Roach and Eddy Reynoso in what could be an entertaining series following both camps’ mind games.
Replays for HBO’s pre-fight series will start as early as Sunday, Nov. 15 (Monday, Nov. 16 AEDT), which will be aired on both HBO and HBO2 throughout the period leading up to the fight night.
Meanwhile, the winner of the bout between Cotto and Canelo will have a mandatory title defence against Golovkin, who is keen to unify all the middleweight title belts. However, catchweight stipulations remain the blocking force to see a super-fight between “GGG” and either of the two boxers, who recently claimed they will not fight the undefeated Kazakh at full 160 pounds.
“There is no chance that I will go to 155-pounds for a ‘Canelo’ fight,” Golovkin said, reports Boxing News 24. “The division limit is 160 pounds, this is my weight class.”
Full replay schedule for “Face Off” (AEDT)
HBO – 11/16 (4:00 a.m. & 10:45 a.m.) 11/17 (8:00 a.m. & 9:50 p.m.) 11/18 (3:00 p.m.) 11/19 (6:00 a.m.) 11/20 (5:00 p.m.) 11/22 (4:00 a.m.)
HBO2 – 11/15 (6:15 p.m.) 11/18 (5:45 p.m.) 11/19 (1:45 p.m.) 11/20 (11:30 a.m.) 11/21 (11:30 a.m.) 11/22 (9:00 a.m.)
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