On Saturday night, two of boxing’s new generation Heavyweight champions meet when Anthony Joshua faces Joseph Parker. The winner will unify 3 of the 4 major world titles, and will cement his status as the division’s #1. Here are the odds from OddsShark as of Tuesday morning:
Anthony Joshua -900
Joseph Parker +550
Those are wide odds for a fight between two of the division’s top three, but they are also understandable. Joshua has been in there with tougher competition and he’s proved his mettle – most notably against Wladimir Klitschko last year. Parker meanwhile has been struggling against recent opposition. He’s managed to get it done, but it hasn’t always come easily.
As an interesting comparison, this is actually the third closest odds in Joshua’s career. He’s never been the underdog, but his closest odds came against Klitschko, where he closed at -200. He was also -450 against Charles Martin (which, in retrospect, was completely ridiculous). In his last fight against Carlos Takam, he was -5000, which have been pretty typical odds throughout his career.
Here’s a round-up of other upcoming boxing odds courtesy of Bovada:
Terence Crawford -2250
Jeff Horn +950Jessie Vargas -120
Adrien Broner -110David Haye -190
Tony Bellew +155Gennady Golovkin -170
Canelo Alvarez +140Vasyl Lomachenko -800
Jorge Linares +500
And of course…
Manny Pacquiao -450
Conor McGregor +325