Season Premiere of HBO Boxing After Dark Saturday, Jan. 24

       HBO Boxing begins a new season with the final chapter in a heated rivalry when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: MIKE ALVARADO VS. BRANDON RIOS 3 AND GILBERTO RAMIREZ VS. MAXIM VLASOV is seen SATURDAY, JAN. 24 at 9:45 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, Colo., exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team will be ringside for the event, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.

Other HBO playdates: Jan. 25 (10:15 a.m.) and 26 (11:30 p.m.)

HBO2 playdates: Jan. 25 (4:45 p.m.) and 27 (11:50 p.m.)

Alvarado and Rios own one victory apiece in a rivalry that would stand out in any era. Their previous encounters, in 2012 and 2013, were memorable slugfests that had fans on the edge of their seats from the opening bell. Now, they’ll meet in 12-round welterweight showdown before a partisan Alvarado crowd.

Boasting a loyal following, Denver’s Alvarado (34-3, 23 KOs) has battled many top talents in the 140- and 147-pound weight classes, including Juan Manuel Marquez, Ruslan Provodnikov, Mauricio Herrera and Mike Dallas Jr. His crowd-pleasing style is an ideal match for Oxnard, Cal. native Brandon Rios (32-2-1, 22 KOs), who never backs down and has squared off recently with Manny Pacquiao and Diego Chaves.

Previewing the bout, is the special “Road to Alvarado-Rios 3,” which replays Saturday, Jan. 24 (11:45 a.m. ET/PT) on HBO and is available on HBO ON DEMAND^® and HBO GO^®.

Following the first Rios-Alvarado fight, Yahoo! Sports wrote, “Each round was bitterly contested and the advantage would swing from one guy to the other like a pendulum,” adding that it was “one of the most sensational bouts in a long time.”

Opening the telecast, Mexico’s Gilberto Ramirez (30-0, 24 KOs) makes his HBO debut in a ten-round light heavyweight matchup with Russia’s Maxim Vlasov (30-1, 15 KOs). Ramirez, who is moving up in weight to take on Vlasov, relies on knockout power and ring savvy; appearing on HBO Latino in November, he stopped Fulgencio Zuniga in the eighth round. Vlasov has won his last 11 fights.

Follow HBO boxing news at hbo.com/boxing, on Facebook at facebook.com/hboboxing and on Twitter attwitter.com/hboboxing.

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 HBO BOXING AFTER DARK is Rick Bernstein; producer, Dave Harmon; director, Johnathan Evans.

® HBO BOXING AFTER DARK is a registered service mark of Home Box Office, Inc.