Juan Manuel Marquez has never been knocked out in his 52-fight professional boxing career. Aside from a disqualification in his first fight 15 years ago, his only losses have been 12-round decisions. So as Marquez prepares to fight Manny Pacquiao on Saturday, why do I find it tempting to place a little wager on Pacquiao beating Marquez in the first round? Probably because I remember how the first round went when these guys fought four years ago:
That was the first round in which Pacquiao famously knocked Marquez down three times, only to get out-boxed the rest of the night and wind up with a draw. But so dominant was Pacquiao in the first three minutes that some referees would have stopped that fight. And if you think Pacquiao is going to have a similarly dominant first round on Saturday night, you could make big money.
The odds at Bodog say that a $100 bet on Pacquiao to win in the first round pays off at $2,200. Trying to predict the exact round that a fight will end isn’t easy, but that strikes me as a fairly good bet. Is it likely to happen? No. But is it so unlikely that you wouldn’t bet $100 with a chance to profit by more than $2,000? It’s at least worth thinking about.
We’ll be providing live, round-by-round updates of Pacquiao-Marquez II on Saturday night.
