HBO planning to air Calzaghe-Manfredo live on a Saturday afternoon

12/12/2006

HBO planning to air Calzaghe-Manfredo live on a Saturday afternoon

Press Release: The UK publicity tour for the April 7, 2007 Joe Calzaghe-Peter Manfredo, Jr. world super middleweight championship fight continued today with a press conference at the host venue, Millennium Stadium, in Cardiff, Wales.  Yesterday, Calzaghe, boxing's current longest-reigning world champion at nine years and counting,  and Manfredo, a finalist on season one of "The Contender," hosted a standing room only press conference in London. Manfredo (26-3, 12 KOs), from Providence, RI,  has attracted throngs of fans wherever he goes. It took him nearly one hour to make it through fans and autograph hounds to ringside for the Danny Williams-Audley Harrison rumble in London last Saturday.  Calzaghe (42-0, 31 KOs), from Newbridge, Wales, who has defended his championship belt 19 times since winning it in 1997, is looking to break into the Top-Five on boxing's all-time title defense list.  Currently tied for sixth place with strawweight champion Ricardo López and featherweight champion Eusebio Pedroza, Manfredo is all that stands between Joe and landmark defense #20, which would place him in a fourth-place tie with Larry Holmes and Bernard Hopkins, former heavyweight and middleweight champions, respectively. Millennium Stadium is currently scaled for more than 30,000 seats with the ability to expand.  HBO will broadcast the fight live at 5 P.M. ET/2 P.M. PT with a replay later that evening at 10 P.M. ET Â