Former welterweight champ Zab Judah will be the subject of a program similar to HBO’s all-access 24-7 series called Fight Night 36 on NBC Sports over the few days in advance of his clash with unbeaten Vernon Paris that will take place March 24 at the Aviator Sports Complex in Judah’s hometown of Brooklyn, N.Y.

The half-hour special, which will premiere at 10:30 p.m. ET on March 21 and be replayed five times, will chronicle 36 hours in the life of Judah (41-7, 28 knockouts) as he prepares to face Paris (26-0, 15 KOs) in an IBF junior welterweight title eliminator on the second telecast of the NBC Sports Network Fight Night boxing series.

NHL 36 is a regular series that profiles NHL players and has received acclaim since it debuted on the NBC Sports Network last December, but this is the first time the network has focused on boxing.

“Compelling, story-driven access is something we want to grow in the NBC Sports Network original space,” said Ron Wechsler, vice president of original programming and development at NBC Sports Network. “Given the success we have seen with NHL 36, we are excited to extend the brand to boxing. With Zab Judah returning to his hometown of Brooklyn, we have an amazing hook for our first Fight Night 36 special.”

Judah is promoted by Kathy Duva, president of Main Events.

“This is a major breakthrough for the sport of boxing, in my opinion. They told us about their desire to do this last week, and we turned it around in a few days,” said Duva. “They are finishing up with the taping today at Zab’s camp and this show premieres in a week. And I am told that they plan to continue doing these. As you can probably tell, I am pretty excited about this.”

The program will be rebroadcast 5 times for a total of 6 showings in all. After the primiere, it will be shown once on March 22, twice on March 23 and twice on March 24. The last rebroadcast will be the lead-in to the actual fight.

Below are the scheduled re-airings of Fight Night 36: Zab Judah:

March 22 at 11:30 p.m.

March 23 at 9:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.

March 24 at 6 p.m. and at 9:30 p.m.

All times are ET.

Photo by Emily Harney / Fightwireimages.com

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]