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When Vitali Klitschko (38-2, 37 KOs) defended his heavyweight title Sept. 26 via 10th-round knockout of American Cristobal Arreola, the fight generated HBO's best boxing rating of the year, a 4.8 for the live broadcast, which translates to approximately 2.1 million viewers (and doesn't include an additional 940,000 viewers who watched replays in the following days). So it should come as no surprise that HBO is interested in picking up U.S. coverage of Klitschko's defense against another American, Kevin Johnson (22-0-1, 9 KOs), whom he faces Dec. 12 in Bern, Switzerland. HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg told ESPN.com that he and Klitschko adviser Shelly Finkel are working on a deal for the fight. "We're in negotiations, and we hope to come to a resolution," Greenburg said. If it gets done, it would turn HBO's Dec. 12 card into a split-site tripleheader with the heavyweight bout on same-day tape along with live coverage of the Juan Diaz-Paulie Malignaggi rematch and Victor Ortiz-Antonio Diaz from Chicago. "We're looking at this as an extra bonus for the subscriber," Greenburg said of the heavyweight fight.
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