MANNY PACQUIAO VS FLOYD MAYWEATHER LATEST NEWS AND BETTING ODDS
The Pacquiao-Mayweather fight has been thrown for a loop thanks to the doping allegations bandied about by the Mayweather camp. Many boxing pundits and fans alike have nothing but dismay for the current situation as the very likelihood of the fight happening is now very much in jeopardy. There seem to be a group that think the fight is more or less off (some major bookmakers have pulled odds on the fight) but a larger group seem to think that this is all just a ploy to keep the fight on the front or back pages of the newspapers.
Enter: The Nevada State Athletic Commission.
The BBC is reporting that the Executive director of the NSAC, Keith Kizer, has stepped in and formally announced that both fighters must submit to a urine test within 48 hours of today or risk an outright ban from the most powerful regulatory commission in world boxing.
The facts have been complicated by video footage showing that Manny Pacquiao gave blood during a blood drive 14 days (corrected in the comments) before fighting (and beating) Ricky Hatton. Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum have claimed that giving blood prior to a fight weakens him and would jeopardize his chances of victory. Pacquiao's camp had previously stated that they would arrange a fight against the middling American fighter Paulie Malignaggi, who was annihilated by Ricky Hatton last year.
The Mayweather-Pacquiao fight is scheduled for March 13 and there is a chance that if the fight was cancelled it would be fought later in the year, but only after each boxer had fought another opponent.
This is effectively the fight that would save boxing and put it back on the map. Ultimate Fighting and MMA simply cannot match a $100,000,000 fight no matter how hard it tries and this fight has the boxing world abuzz. For it to not go ahead over something as petty as doping allegations would be an absolute travesty for a sport that brought us Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Ken Buchanan and all the ear-biting madness of the Mike Tyson era.
As mentioned above, some online betting sites have pulled their odds for this fight pending a further announcement, but the betting remains available at Betfair! Betfair punters continue to back and lay on the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight and you'll find that Mayweather remains the odds-on favourite to win with a price trading at around 1.8 at the moment. Manny Pacquiao's odds sit at around 2.3 with the draw paying out at 40.0. Multiple markets are available on the fight and you'll find the method of victory betting pointing towards a Mayweather win by decision, which trades at a 3.05 margin. Mayweather by KO or TKO is listed at 4.2 while Pacquiao is available at 4.0 and 4.1 to win via decision and KO/TKO, respectively.