Boxing Betting: Heavyweight Fights Entice Gamblers

When it comes to boxing betting, anything that removes the outcome from the hands of the judges is preferable, thus the affection gamblers have for those knockout prone heavyweights who seem to rarely leave matters to the ringside pencil-pushers.

Pugilistic punters probably won’t have to worry about the verdict being decided by judges in a couple of back-to-back heavyweight championship fights scheduled for the first two Saturdays in July. Oddly enough, the country that gave us Mercedes-Benz automobiles, Beck’s beer and Heidi Klum also will provide the backdrop for both battles. Wunderbar!

The WBA heavyweight title will be on the line when champion Ruslan Chagaev defends against Nikolay Valuev in the first of the two title fights (I know you’re already thinking parlay) in Halle, Nordrheim-Westfalen, Germany on July 5. Despite giving away 11 inches in height and 92 pounds, the 6-1, 228-pounds Chagaev took the title from Valuev with a majority decision in April of 2007. The rematch finds the 7-0, 320-pound Valuev (48-1, 34 knockouts) a consensus -140 favorite (bet $140 to win $100) to regain his belt while Chagaev (24-0, 17 KOs) is a +120 underdog (bet $100 to win $120) to beat the giant again.

Proving that today’s boxing betting isn’t your father’s Oldsmobile, er, Mercedes, there are several other ways to bet the scheduled 12-round fight. For example, there’s an over/under of 10 1/2 rounds with bettors who think the bout will exceed the midway point of the 11th round asked to lay -450 on the “over” while those who believe it won’t go that far taking back +350.

You can also bet on the five possible outcomes: Valuev by decision (+130); Valuev by KO, TKO or DQ (+450); Chagaev by decision (+160); Chagaev by KO, TKO or DQ (+900); or a draw (+1600).

Bettors with four-leaf clovers may try to pick which fighter scores a knockout in which round, a longshot proposition where odds range from a low of 25/1 to a high of 60/1.

A wager that tilts the luck/skill equation a bit more to the latter may be Round Group Betting. In this prop, bettors can opt for a trio of bout-ending rounds:

      Rounds            Valuev      Chagaev

      1, 2 or 3            25/1           33/1

      4, 5 or 6            18/1           18/1

      7, 8 or 9            14/1           22/1

      10, 11 or 12      14/1            25/1

A week after the Chagaev-Valuev tussle, IBF and WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (50-3, 44 KOs) defends his belts against Tony Thompson (31-1, 19 KOs) in Altona, Hamburg, Germany, on July 12.

Klitschko generally is recognized as the most legitimate of the various heavyweight champions, a notion underscored by HBO’s telecast of his title defense. Klitschko, who is riding an eight-bout winning streak that includes victories over four previously unbeaten fighters (Sultan Ibragimov, Calvin Brock, Samuel Peter, Eliseo Castillo), opened as a consensus -1100 favorite.

If -1100 isn’t your style, you only have to lay -500 that Klitschko gets the job done via KO or TKO. Or, if you think Thompson can go the distance, it’s +350 that the “Steelhammer” wins via the score cards.

Thompson, who has won 27 consecutive bouts but has not faced the same level of competition as Klitschko, opened as a +800 underdog. You can get an even bigger price, +1800, that the “Tiger” beats Klitschko in a 12-round decision.

The best odds on the fight, +2800, are for a 12-round draw.

The total for the bout is 9 1/2 rounds with “under” listed at -180 and “over” quoted at +140.

Like the Chagaev-Valuev bout, there’s individual round betting on this one, as well, with prices ranging from 7/1 to 33/1 on various rounds for a Klitschko stoppage of Thompson and a robust 50/1 to 100/1 for choosing the exact round of a Thompson KO or TKO of Klitschko.

Of course, no one can guarantee that there’ll be a knockout in Germany (although Heidi Klum is a knockout from Germany) but absent that, these twin heavyweight title bouts should provide enough wagering action for even the most demanding of boxing betting enthusiasts.