subject: Beating the Odds at Boxing [print this page] Although not an every day sport like basketball or baseball, boxing attracts a deluge of betting whenever a title fight or a fight between two well-known boxers occurs. This generally happens every other month. Boxing is truly a worldwide sport, with competitive fighters hailing from locales as disparate as the Philippines and Brazil. None of that matters in the ring. Betting wise, boxing is fairly straightforward. Like many other sports, it uses a money line to set the odds of a particular fighter winning. For the sake of the money line, it does not matter when or how a fighter wins, whether it is a knock out, technical knock out or referee decision. Of course, there are other, more specific wagers you can place, such as in which round a fighter will win, but we will stick with the money line for now. Here are some things to look for when you analyze a boxers stats that will help you pick a winner, regardless of the odds: Record: Naturally, a boxers record is an important factor in determining their chances of beating a particular fighter, but it is a little more complicated than that. In addition to victories and defeats, a boxers wins are divided into wins by knockout or technical knockout. The remaining wins are by referee decision. If a boxer is going against an opponent who has won almost exclusively by knockout, you can assume they are a very aggressive fighter whos opponents dont usually last the whole fight. On the other hand, this means that a boxer could beat him by prolonging the fight to the later rounds, attempting to tire him out and either knock him out late or win by decision. Weight: Although a boxers weight is going to be similar to that of his opponent, even a ten-pound difference can be critical in the ring. Heavier boxers tend to tire out more easily, while packing a punch that can do serious damage to a lighter opponent. Lighter boxers are generally quicker and can dart out of reach of a heavier, slower boxer. Sometimes a heavier boxer will exhaust a lighter one by constantly forcing him to move around the ring, while he stays relatively still. Reach: Body type is also very important when picking a winning boxer. A taller, more slender boxer can have a big advantage over a more compact, powerful fighter due to his extended reach. He can use his longer arms to hammer his opponent, while remaining out of reach of his more powerful blows. This could in turn force a heavier boxer to be more mobile than he would prefer to be, as he tries to get in underneath his opponents longer reach. If he is successful, he will sometimes only need a few punches to put his opponent on the mat. Training: Boxers are actually similar to dogs and horses in that their trainer plays a critical role in their development. Long-time successful trainers are prized as much as extremely talented boxers. If a boxer can land a top-tier trainer, he has gone a long way toward achieving success in the ring. If two boxers with similar stats square off, a good trainer can tip the fight one way or the other. Not only does a trainer help before the fight, but he can also spot gaps in the opponents defenses that his boxer can exploit during the fight. These are just a few of the more important barometers of boxing success. The next time you want to wager on a fight, you must carefully weigh all of these attributes to come up with the likely winner. Though it can be tempting to bet with the odds, it is more exciting to go your own way and see if you have got the skills to be a master of boxing betting.
