HBO Boxing After Dark presents a triple header night of boxing action on August 2, with Brandon Rios vs. Diego Chaves, Sergey Kovalev vs. Blake Caparello, and Jessie Vargas vs. Anton Novikov.
The main event of the HBO broadcast will be the return of Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios against KO artist Diego Chaves of Argentina.
Rios hasn’t fought since losing a unanimous decision to Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao last November. He will stay in the welterweight division and is returning against a very tough opponent in Diego Chaves.
Chaves has only one loss, and that was a TKO to power puncher Keith Thurman. Chaves also has heavy hands and he will give Rios a toe to toe battle. The bout has the makings of Fight of the Year due to the fighters aggressive, and hard hitting styles.
The co-feature will be a WBO light-heavyweight championship. Russian champion Sergey Kovalev will defend his title against Australian Blake Caparello. This fight is important for Kovalev because should he win tonight he will face future Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins in a unification bout.
WBA super-lightweight champion Jessie Vargas will open the HBO broadcast with a title defense against Anton Novikov.
Rios vs. Chaves and Vargas vs. Novikov will happen at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada while Kovalev vs. Caparello will be held at the Revel Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The HBO BAD telecast begins on Saturday, August 2 at 9:45 p.m. ET/PT.
