Following another thrilling weekend of boxing action that saw 2016 U.S. Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson beat Joet Gonzalez to claim the vacant WBO featherweight title, an even bigger pairing is on tap for this coming weekend when Canelo Alvarez takes on Sergey Kovalev for Kovalev’s WBO light heavyweight title. In addition to that, there’s another world title fight going down this coming weekend. Now, let’s find out where the best boxing betting value lies in both matches.
Top Boxing Betting Picks for the Week – October 28th Edition
Miguel Berchelt (36-1, 32 KOs) vs. Jason Sosa (23-3, 16 KOs)
- When: Nov. 2, 2019
- Where: Dignity Health Sports Park, Carson, Calif.
27-year-old Mexico native Miguel Berchelt stands 5’7” with a 71-inch reach and comes into this bout riding an impressive 15-fight winning streak that includes a sixth round retirement win over Francisco Vargas in May. Prior to that, Berchelt had won three consecutive fights via TKO.
31-year-old American and WBA super featherweight champion Jason Sosa stands 5’5” with a 67-inch reach. The champ comes into this bout riding a three-fight winning streak that includes a 10th round TKO win over Haskell Rhodes in August after winning each of his previous two fights via unanimous decision.
Prediction
While Sosa is the champ coming into this affair, I like Miguel Berchelt to get the huge upset win for several reasons. First, the challenger is the younger fighter in this match. Not only that, but he’s definitely got the big edge in punching power, not to mention the fact that he hasn’t been beaten since 2014. Sosa lost consecutive fights in 2017 by retiring against Vasyl Lomachenko and ending up on the wrong side of a mixed decision loss against the unheralded Yuriokis Gamboa. I’m going with the younger, stronger and steadier Miguel Berchelt to get the win and you should too.
Pick: Miguel Berchelt Via 10th Round KO
Sergey Kovalev (34-3-1, 29 KOs) vs. Canelo Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KOs)
- When: Saturday, November 2 at 11:00 PM ET
- Where: MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV
Boxing Odds
36-year-old Russian Sergey Kovalev stands 6’0” with a 72.5-inch reach. The WBO lightweight heavyweight champion has won two straight fights including his title win over Eleider Alvarez in their rematch in February and a convincing 11th round TKO win over Anthony Yarde in August.
29-year-old Mexican middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez stands 5’9” with a 70.5-inch reach. The widely popular champion has won three straight fights including a unanimous decision win over Daniel Jacobs in May. Alvarez’s only career loss came against Floyd Mayweather in 2013 and he fought Triple G to a draw in September of 2017 before narrowly picking up a mixed decision win in their rematch that following September in a bout that many don’t think he won.
Prediction
Now, with Alvarez moving up in weight class to take on a much bigger fighter in Sergey Kovalev, I’m thinking the skilled and wildly-popular fighter could be in a bit of trouble. I know Kovalev is getting up there in age and that he’s lost three of his last seven fights, including consecutive losses against Andre Ward in 2016 and 2017, I’m expecting the champ to give Canelo Alvarez a super difficult way to go before narrowly losing via unanimous decision that is based mostly on punches thrown.
Alvarez is the younger and more skilled fighter and while he isn’t as big as Kovalev, he does have some decent punching power, even though he’s never fought an opponent as big as the light heavyweight champ. Points and popularity will be the deciding factors in this pairing, even though I’m expecting Sergey Kovalev to throwing everything he has as Canelo except the kitchen sink.
Prediction: Canelo Alvarez Via Unanimous Decision
