Some of the biggest names in the sport are ready for action in the coming months, including the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez. Here’s a look at the latest boxing odds for those upcoming bouts and other marquee fights scheduled for the months ahead.
Hopefully, these fights will help spur on another interesting year in the sport. More importantly, hopefully some of the winners of these fights, we’re looking at you Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez, actually face each other.
Pacquiao vs. Bradley April 9th: This is the final in a trilogy no one expected. It came together after Bradley’s highly controversial split decision victory in 2012. Bradley isn’t a big hitter and at this point, neither is Pacquiao who won the rematch with a unanimous decision in 2014. This fight will settle the score so to speak and a dominant Pacquiao victory could potentially the stage for another unnecessary rematch, this one against Floyd Mayweather, who claims to be retired. Pacquiao is slightly above even odds with bettors needing to wager $1 to win $1.36. Bradley is slightly more than 3/1 to win.
Golovkin vs. Wade April 23rd: This one doesn’t expect to be much of a contest. Golovkin has turned into the sport’s next superstar with his amazing knockout power and entertaining fights. And as a 15/1 favorite, the bookmakers agree with those sentiments. More importantly, this will hopefully set the stage for a mega-fight between Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez toward the end of 2016.
Alvarez vs. Khan May 7th: While Alvarez is not the heavy favorite Golovkin is (he is listed as just a 7/2 favorite over Khan), he is expected to win easily by pundits. The big question is what would the odds look like if and when Golovkin faces Alvarez? Here’s a quick guess: Golovkin enters as a mild favorite, something along the lines of 5/2 as the public will want to wager on him. Hopefully the two get together this year because there is no other potential matchup right now with as much excitement.
Fury vs. Klitschko II: A date has not been set yet, but Klitschko has already opted to pursue his mandatory rematch clause. Since winning a unanimous decision in November that ended Klitschko’s nearly 10-year title reign, Fury has made more news with his mouth than his fists. He’s already planning a title defense for after the second fight with Klitschko, though oddsmakers see them as dead even with betters needing to bet $1 to win $0.90 for each.
Fury benefited from an awkward style that, more than anything, made Klitschko look bad to the judges. Perhaps with the last fight under his belt, Klitschko can avoid these mistakes and regain the title. While Fury did win, the fight was so bad that experts are still unsure if Fury is legitimate championship material.
Klitschko, of course, is battling time as well, so there is a chance he just may be washed up. This fight will hopefully answer some of these questions. If nothing else, it draws attention to the heavyweight division that has been largely uninteresting for more than a decade.
