HBO, Showtime to share superfight
Agreement for Joshua-Klitschko title bout creates rare situation
Less than two weeks before the biggest heavyweight fight in perhaps a decade, an agreement was reached in which HBO and Showtime will both televise the April 29 title fight between current IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and former longtime champ Wladimir Klitschko.
The mega-fight will take place at Wembley Stadium in London, before a sold-out crowd of 90,000. This will be the third time the rival networks have agreed to both televise a fight, most recently for the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao superfight in May 2015.
Showtime, the exclusive U.S. television partner of Joshua, will broadcast the fight live at 4:15 p.m. ET. HBO, the exclusive network for Klitschko, will televise the fight at 10:45 p.m. ET/PT.
Each network will produce its own telecast. Matchroom Sport, a British promotional company that handles Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs), Klitschko Management Group and K2 Promotions reached agreement with the two networks.
Joshua and Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) will meet for Joshua’s IBF title belt and the vacant IBO and WBA titles. Joshua, the 2012 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist, has knocked out all 18 opponents in a meteoric rise to stardom, while Klitschko aims to regain titles he held in a lengthy rule as world heavyweight champ.
“I’m extremely happy and thankful that our respective U.S. TV partners, Showtime and HBO, reached an agreement,” said Bernd Boente, managing director of KMG. “This happened before in the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao and the (Lennox) Lewis vs. (Mike) Tyson fights and shows you the magnitude of our event at Wembley Stadium on April 29.”
Said Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport, “With the obstacles in place, it would have been an easy resolution to not air the fight in the States, but I want to thank HBO and Showtime for their perseverance and allowing America to see one hell of a fight at our national stadium in front on 90,000 passionate fans.”
Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports, said the event “represents not only the contesting of the heavyweight world championship, but potentially the changing of the guard in the most influential division in boxing.”
Peter Nelson, executive vice president of HBO Sports, noted it would be Klitschko’s 22nd appearance on HBO and the first for Joshua.
Joshua, 27, of Watford, England, won the IBF title with a second-round knockout of Charles Martin in April 2016, earning a heavyweight belt in the fewest number of fights in more than 20 years. He has since successfully defended the title twice — against Dominic Breazeale in June and Eric Molina in December.
Klitschko, 41, had been the lineal heavyweight champ for a decade before losing the IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO titles to Tyson Fury in 2015, his first loss in 11 years.