HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: PAUL WILLIAMS VS. SHARMBA MITCHELL

TOP CONTENDERS LOOK TO CONTINUE THEIR RISE, SATURDAY, AUGUST 19 ON HBO

July 26, 2006

A fast-rising welterweight meets a battle-tested former champion when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: PAUL WILLIAMS VS. SHARMBA MITCHELL is seen SATURDAY, AUGUST 19 at 10:05 PM ET from the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nev., exclusively on HBO. The BOXING AFTER DARK team of Fran Charles, Max Kellerman and Lennox Lewis will be ringside for the event, which will be presented in Spanish language on HBO Latino.

In the main event, top-rated welterweight contender Paul Williams (30-0, 22 KOs), from Augusta, Georgia, faces former two-time junior welterweight champion Sharmba Mitchell (57-5, 30 KOs), from Washington D.C., in a scheduled 12-round, welterweight contest. At 6'2" with a 79-inch reach and southpaw stance, the 24-year old Williams has become one of the more highly touted and often avoided welterweight prospects in the sport. His most recent bout, in May's edition of BOXING AFTER DARK, showed why as he dispatched then-undefeated Walter Matthysse with a 10th-round TKO, displaying effective jabs and straight lefts in doing so. Williams again will have his hands full with a top-rated opponent in Mitchell. A 17-year veteran who has as many knockouts as Williams has fights, Mitchell has carved out a memorable career, earning junior welterweight titles in 1998 and 2004 while consistently challenging some of the best boxers in the sport, including Floyd Mayweather and Kotsya Tszyu. Despite giving up seven inches to his opponent, Mitchell will be Williams' toughest challenge to date, and he comes into the fight with momentum after a unanimous decision win over Jose Luis Cruz in May.