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By Jun Medina, Special
Correspondent
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Filipino boxing
icon Manny Pacquiao has emerged a 2-1 betting favorite to beat world
junior welterweight champion Ricky Hatton of the United Kingdom in
their May 2 super fight in Las Vegas.
In the world’s gaming capital
of Las Vegas and in the United Kingdom, where Hatton enjoys solid
following among British boxing fans, the odds are all the same:
Pacquiao is the clear favorite.
Early betting lines at the Las
Vegas Hilton sports book showed Pacquiao a minus 215 betting
favorite, which means a $2.15 bet on the Filipino icon wins $1.
The price on Hatton opened at
plus 185, meaning $1 netting $1.85 at the Hilton.
In the round proposition, the odd
is at minus 140 that the scheduled 12-rounder will last at least
until the 1:30 mark of the 10th round. It’s plus 120 the fight
will end before 1:30 of Round 10.
At the Pinnacle Sports Book and
Casino, the odds are almost the same. A $2.11 bet on Pacquiao wins a
dollar, while a dollar bet on Hatton nets $1.91
In terms of how many rounds the
fight will go, the betting is minus 135 that the fight will last 9.5
rounds. And it’s plus 125 the fight will end before the middle of
the ninth round.
In Hatton’s turf in Britain,
the betting lines are surprisingly even slightly higher in
Pacquiao’s favor, according to the BestBetting.com gaming website.
Four of the seven gaming
firms—Bet Direct, Bet Fred, Stan James and Victor Chandler—have
Pacquiao the 9-4 favorite or 2.25 pound sterling winning a pound.
It’s 5-2 odds in favor Pacquiao in the three other betting firms
like BluesQ, Paddy Power and Tote Sport.
The odds for Hatton were either
8-13 or 4-7, not much different from the trends in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 by
knockouts), a world champion in four different weight divisions, is
coming off a dominant eighth round technical knockout win over Oscar
de la Hoya on December 6.
Hatton (45-1, 32 knockouts), of
Manchester, England, stopped Paulie Malignaggi in November to
successfully defend his International Boxing Organization (IBO)
junior welterweight title.
The winner of the Hatton-Pacquiao
fight is expected to square off with former pound-for-pound (p4p)
king Floyd Mayweather Jr., the only man to defeat Hatton.
Pacquiao is presently The
Ring’s p4p king while Hatton is ranked 10th in that elite list.
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