LAS VEGAS – This city is not a gambling capital for nothing. Bets are made on just about anything under the sun. And, speaking of the sun, will it shine tomorrow? I guess there can be a bet on that, too.
So imagine an event (yes, the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight is not a boxing match, it is an event) this big and think of the bets that will be made on it.
The bets are not only the simplest one that comes to mind like, who’s your pick to win? Pacquiao or Mayweather.
Of course, there’s a bet on that. But that’s the simplest, easiest and no-brainer bet one can make in Las Vegas about the fight. Another is choosing which fighter wins by knockout. The bigger return, of course, is picking the round that knockout will happen.
But Vegas being Vegas, gambling operators here will think of all sorts of propositions to make you part with your money.
And to the really adventurous, here’s one for them: Which fighter will land the first punch? And if you think that’s absurd enough, they also have a betting line on which hand will land the first punch, left or right?
On both bets, Mayweather is favored by oddsmakers to land the first punch with his right hand in which he is -125 favorite. On the other hand, Pacquiao landing the first punch with his left is +105.
A left hand punch being thrown first is -130 over the right hand at +100.
There’s also a proposition on how many total points Pacquiao and Mayweather will each score on the three referees’ scorecards.
Then there’s the usual bets on predicting which round will end by knockout and separate bets that the fight will not go the full seven rounds, the full eight, and so on, until the 11th.
But even as the preparations have been finished and the stage has been set for this generation’s biggest fight, there are still those who think the fight will not proceed for one reason or another.
Wanna bet?