Kovalev vs. Ward live stream: How to watch undercard fights online, including Claressa Shields’s pro debut

While the pay-per-view bout between Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev is one of the biggest fights of the year and of either fighter’s career, there are some significant fights on the undercard — the most, from an interest perspective, is the professional debut of Claressa Shields, a two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist.

Shields, an amateur boxing sensation, will face Franchon Crews in middleweight competition on Saturday. The match will be part of the freeview telecast beginning at 7 p.m. ET and streamed live online via the HBO Sports YouTube channel. The proper pay-per-view card, via HBO, gets underway at 9 p.m.

Shields, nicknamed “T-Rex,” hails from Flint, Michigan, and while she is a big deal in the country because of her Olympic medals, it’s also the professional debut for Crews, who calls herself “The Heavy Hitting Diva.” The fight will be four two-minute rounds.

Crews and Shields have been dominating the amateur circuit for some time, and it was only when women’s boxing was introduced at the Olympics that Shields really started to surpass Crews in the public eye. This is a high-level fight between two fighters with promising careers ahead of them. When a fighter makers their professional debut, they are usually favored heavily. But Crews is much more than a live body at this stage.

Here’s the full fight card for the night, along with all the information you need to watch the undercard and catch the pay-per-view via HBO.

Pay-per-view card

Light heavyweight: Sergey Kovalev vs. Andre Ward
Light heavyweight: Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs. Isaac Chilemba
Middleweight: Curtis Stevens vs. James de la Rosa
Super lightweight: Maurice Hooker vs. Darleys Perez

Freeview telecast

Heavyweight: Darmani Rock vs. Brice Ritani-Coe
Middleweight: Claressa Shields vs. Franchon Crews
Featherweight: Tyler McCreary vs. Vincent Jennings
Junior welterweight: Sonny Fredrickson vs. Gabriel Duluc

All times Eastern

Time: 7 p.m. (free undercard), 9 p.m. (pay-per-view card)

Location: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada

TV: HBO pay-per-view

Online streaming: YouTube (free undercard)