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As we get closer to Saturday night’s big heavyweight fight between WBC titleholder Deontay Wilder and lineal champion Tyson Fury, we’ve got a pretty clear look at the betting odds for the matchup, and Wilder is favored — though not by a lot — to retain his title.
The opening lines had both fighters with favored odds, Fury at -110 and Wilder at -120. But since then, Fury (27-0, 19 KO) has become the underdog, while Wilder (40-0, 39 KO) has seen his chances, according to the books at least, go the other way.
Bovada has Wilder at -170, while most other books have him around -150 or so. Bovada’s line on Fury is +140, which is about standard across the board, in some spots around +120. So it’s about as even a line as we see in boxing for big fights, really, which speaks to a couple of things, one being how well-matched the fight is on paper, another being that it’s a little unpredictable. With Fury having had just a couple of tune-ups in the past three years, we really don’t know exactly what we’ve got with him on Saturday night.
As for the pay-per-view undercard, the less said, the better. It’s a trio of utter mismatches on paper. Jarrett Hurd is a massive favorite against Jason Welborn, Luis Ortiz a massive favorite against Travis Kauffman, and Joe Joyce a massive favorite against Joe Hanks. None of the fights are expected to be competitive.