Manny Pacquiao –250 Favorite to Beat Ricky Hatton
Despite the down economy, boxing fans from the United Kingdom and the Philippines will pay big money this weekend to meet up for the World Junior Welterweight Championship between Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Oddsmakers from online sportsbook SPORTSBETTING.COM have made Manny Pacquiao a -230 favorite for the fight this Saturday night. Pacquiao has a career record of 48-3-2, with 36 KO’s and was recently named 2008 Fighter of the Year after his dominating performance against a less than impressive Oscar de la Hoya.
Although Pacquiao’s trainer Freddy Roach will likely have a different strategy in place to prepare for Hatton’s power, Pacquiao has gone on a nice run, winning 24 of his last 25 fights and has used his speed and athleticism to show why he is considered by many to be the best pound for pound fighter in the world.
Ricky Hatton, (45-1, 32 KO’s) on the other hand, hopes to have his usual large contingent of fans from Great Britain and has looked sharp since dropping down to his more natural fighting weight after his loss against Floyd Mayweather in 2007. Floyd Mayweather Sr. is now behind his training and many bettors are arguing that there is tremendous value behind the hard-hitting Ricky Hatton at +180.
What bettors agree on is that everyone hopes to see a great fight, one that has the potential to be the fight of the year and sports books seem to agree that the fight could go deep into the match. Oddsmakers have set the line for the fight to go over 9.5 rounds at -135.
Saturday’s big fight is scheduled to take place at 11:30PM ET at the MGM Grand in front of a sold out crowd of over 17,000. For a complete list of odds, see below.
Light Welterweight 12 Rounds @ Las Vegas, Nevada
9601 Ricky Hatton +180
9602 Manny Pacquiao -230
Total Rounds Hatton vs Pacquiao @ Las Vegas, Nevada
9603 Over Rounds OV 9½ (-135)
9704 Under Rounds UN 9½ (+105)