World Championship Boxing returns Saturday Afternoon from Monte Carlo

            Perhaps the sport’s most feared fighter, middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin has built a powerhouse reputation by demonstrating a willingness to take on any challenge and displaying an intriguing array of skills, highlighted by stunning knockout power.

Now, the Kazakhstan native makes his highly anticipated 2015 debut when WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: GENNADY GOLOVKIN VS. MARTIN MURRAY is seen SATURDAY, FEB. 21 at 5:45 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from the Salle des Etoiles in glittering Monte Carlo, exclusively on HBO, with a replay later that night on HBO at 10:15 p.m. (ET/PT). The HBO Sports team will call all the action, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.

In the 13th defense of his middleweight crown, 32-year-old Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs), originally from Karaganda, Kazakhstan, and now training at Big Bear, Cal., meets the formidable Martin Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs) from St Helens, Merseyside, United Kingdom in a scheduled 12-round contest. Currently boasting a knockout victory streak of 18, Golovkin has taken the boxing world by storm with an extraordinary knockout-to-win ratio of better than 90%. No opponent has gone the distance with him since Nov. 2008, and the average length of his pro bouts is 4.6 rounds; his three 2014 fights ended in the seventh, third and second rounds. Trained by the highly regarded Abel Sanchez, Golovkin will be making his seventh appearance on HBO since his auspicious debut in Sept. 2012.

Murray, 32, is a seasoned pro willing to accept any challenge, at any location. He battled titleholder Felix Sturm to a hard-fought draw in Mannheim, Germany, and fought Sergio Martinez before a raucous partisan crowd in Argentina, resulting in what some saw as a questionable loss. In October, Murray won in impressive fashion against Domenico Spada in Monte Carlo.

The telecast from Monte Carlo continues HBO’s initiative of presenting high-caliber fights from Europe in the late-Saturday afternoon time slot. In the past two years, HBO Boxing visited London, Moscow and Hamburg for world-class title action.

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All HBO boxing events are presented in HDTV. HBO viewers must have access to the HBO HDTV channel to watch HBO programming in high definition.

The executive producer of WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is Rick Bernstein; producer, Jon Crystal; director, Johnathan Evans.