YouTube Monday was forced to remove video of HBO's May 5 Oscar de la Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jr. pay-per-view telecast after the network protested to the social Web site about its posting.
HBO has exclusive rights to the rebroadcast of the PPV fight and has scheduled its first airing this Saturday on the network, but AP reported that several copies of the bout appeared on YouTube over the weekend.
The fight -- in which Mayweather defeated de la Hoya in a close decision -- was expected to draw more than 1.4 million buys, a record for a nonheavyweight event.
The videos were taken down shortly after 4 p.m. Monday and replaced with a notice saying they were "no longer available due to a copyright claim by Home Box Office Inc.," according to the AP, although HBO officials denied taking any legal action against the site.
"We're very aggressive in monitoring our content, and we reacted quickly to have it removed," HBO Sports spokesman Ray Stallone said.
