HBO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: IKE QUARTEY VS. VERNON FORREST

A pair of former welterweight champions take center stage amid the bright spotlights of "The World's Most Famous Arena" when WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: IKE QUARTEY VS. VERNON FORREST AND KASSIM OUMA VS. SECHEW POWELL is seen live from the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York SATURDAY, AUG. 5 (10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT), exclusively on HBO.

July 11, 2006

The HBO Sports team of Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant and Emanuel Steward will be ringside for the event, which will be available in HDTV, as well as closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.

HBO2 playdates: Aug. 6 (9:00 a.m., 5:30 p.m.) and 8 (11:00 p.m.). Times are ET/PT.

Ike "Bazooka" Quartey (37-2-1, 31 KOs), from Accra, Ghana, reigned as welterweight champion for more than four years (1994-1999) before suffering consecutive losses to Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas in two title bouts. Taking a five-year hiatus after the Vargas defeat, Quartey has since rebounded with three straight wins, including his most recent victory over Carlos Bojorquez on the undercard of Taylor-Hopkins II last December.

Like Quartey, Vernon Forrest (37-2, 28 KOs), fighting out of Atlanta, was once a titleholder in the welterweight division and started his career with a bang before two losses. After two unanimous-decision victories over the accomplished "Sugar" Shane Mosley in 2002, the first of which took place at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, Forrest was an undefeated, red-hot champion at 35-0. But the slugging Ricardo Mayorga dealt him a shocking TKO loss in Jan. 2003, and inflicted a second loss on Forrest with a 12-round victory six months later in their Las Vegas rematch. Since the second Mayorga bout, Forrest has worked to reestablish himself in the division, earning TKO victories over Sergio Rios and Elco Garcia. The Quartey-Forrest showdown is set for 12 rounds.

The evening's undercard features former junior middleweight champion Kassim "The Dream" Ouma (24-2-1, 15 KOs), whose life journey has been nothing short of inspiring. Like many youngsters, Ouma was forced into military service before his sixth birthday in his native Uganda, becoming a "kadooga," or boy soldier. He escaped to the U.S. at age 19, though his struggles did not end once he reached American soil. Ouma survived a drive-by shooting in Palm Beach, Fla., in Dec. 2002, as well as a serious car accident less than a year later. But Ouma persevered, establishing himself as a fan favorite en route to winning a junior middleweight title with a unanimous-decision victory over Verno Phillips in Oct. 2004. Despite losing his title to Roman Karmazin nine months later, Ouma remains a captivating figure for his explosive punching style and incredible life story. In May, he received the Pat Putnam Award for Perseverance from the Boxing Writers Association of America. The next day he scored a split-decision victory over Marco Antonio Rubio on the undercard of the De La Hoya-Mayorga fight.

Sechew Powell (20-0, 12 KOs) is a hungry, up-and-coming young 154-pounder from Brooklyn with title dreams of his own. A former Golden Gloves champion, the 27-year-old boasts an extraordinary jab that has allowed him to go undefeated in his first 20 professional fights, including a first-round TKO victory over then-undefeated middleweight contender Cornelius Bundrage in May 2005. Since that win, Powell has earned four more victories, the most recent of which came against Willie Lee in Memphis on June 17. The Ouma-Powell fight is set for 12 rounds.