LAS VEGAS - The chairman and chief executive of HBO was arrested early Sunday on suspicion of assaulting his girlfriend outside the MGM Grand casino hours after a boxing match aired by his company, authorities said.

Chris Albrecht was in Las Vegas for Saturday night's fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr., held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and broadcast on pay-per-view by Home Box Office, Inc., a division of Time Warner Inc.

Officers assigned to the fight reported seeing Albrecht fighting with a woman identified only as his girlfriend in the MGM Grand's valet parking lot shortly after 3 a.m. local time, said Las Vegas police spokesman Officer Bill Cassell.

"Some of our guys observed a domestic dispute between him and his girlfriend," Cassell told the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

"It was a physical confrontation."

Albrecht was booked into the Clark County Detention Center and held on suspicion of misdemeanour battery-domestic assault, Cassell said.

A call to an HBO representative was not immediately returned