HBO Sports boss divulges Legendary Nights details

HBO Sports boss divulges Legendary Nights details
Mark E. Ortega
RingTV.com
September 27, 2013


HBO Sports president Ken Hershman confirmed some details about the upcoming Legendary Nights documentary based on the Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward trilogy while in Los Angeles for the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Bryan Vera fight.

“It'll air on Oct. 19 after the fight between Mike Alvarado and Ruslan Provodnikov,” Hershman told RingTV.com on Friday after Chavez Jr. and Vera weighed in ahead of tomorrow's fight in Carson, Calif.

It'll be the first installment of the acclaimed series since the first set of episodes ran in 2003. Incidentally, Gatti and Ward waged 30 rounds of war against each other between 2002 and 2003 before becoming the best of friends. Now a decade removed from the fights and the last run of Legendary Nights, it could be considered perfect timing for the series' return.

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HBO reboots popular Legendary Nights to chronicle Gatti-Ward

HBO reboots popular Legendary Nights to chronicle Gatti-Ward

Mark E. Ortega

Freelance

March 26, 2013

The much anticipated return of HBO Sports' brilliant Legendary Nights series was announced to heavy fanfare in a press release Tuesday afternoon.

The original series, which aired in 2003, chronicled a dozen different fights or series of fights that were aired on HBO and had a major impact on the sweet science. Now a decade later, HBO will bring back the highly lauded program to examine the trilogy of fights between Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward, which took place between May 2002 and June 2003 and earned two Fight of the Year honors in the process.

Ten more fights that deserve the HBO Legendary Nights treatment

Ten more fights that deserve the HBO Legendary Nights treatment
Mark E. Ortega
Queensberry-Rules.com
November 30, 2012

When HBO Sports churned out a series of 30-minute documentaries on twelve of the best fights broadcast on their airwaves, we watched. In 2003, HBO took us inside twelve different rivalries, giving us certain insights that you wouldn't have known unless you were an insider when the fights took place. For some of these fights, there were no message boards. In 2003, there was no YouTube.

But thankfully, with the excellent narrating skills of Liev Schreiber and studio work of Jim Lampley (a much better Lampley than we are seeing on “The Fight Game”), old fans were able to relive, and new fans were introduced to, these twelve matchups: Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney, Aaron Pryor-Alexis Arguello, Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler-Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler-Ray Leonard, Julio Cesar Chavez-Meldrick Taylor, Mike Tyson-Buster Douglas, Evander Holyfield-Riddick Bowe, Riddick Bowe-Andrew Golota, Michael Moorer-George Foreman, Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad and Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson.

As a burgeoning fight fan in 2003, the production value and format of these documentaries helped my interest grow even larger. It made me want to go back and read work from some of the veteran sportswriters that were featured, like the Boston Globe's Ron Borges or Tim Kawakami (then of the Philadelphia Daily News). It made me want to gain access to the footage of these fights, which in 2003 was a ton more difficult than it is today.

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