British Boxing Odds – This Saturday night sees Promoter Frank Warren and his Queensberry Promotions at London’s Copper Box Arena for a huge fight card topped by two world title fights.
IBF world super middleweight champion James DeGale (23-1-1) returns to action on his home turf as he defends his title against American veteran Caleb Truax (28-3-2). Since the start of 2015, DeGale has been fighting outside of the U.K. in the United States. That run saw him win the IBF belt and defend it several times against international opposition. Despite that success, DeGale had several fights postponed and in his last fight he dueled Badou Jack to a draw in a title unification bout with the WBC champ. That fight went down in January after many delays and the unsatisfying ending saw Badou Jack move on to world titles at light heavyweight while DeGale seemed in limbo. Truax is a veteran who has been in there with the likes of Daniel Jacobs and Anthony Dirrell but he has failed to break through with a win against upper-level competition. DeGale, despite the long layoff, should still be considered top shelf and the class of the super middleweights.
Popular IBF world featherweight titlist Lee Selby (25-1) is taking on the challenge of Mexico’s Eduardo Ramirez (20-0-3). For Selby, this is the fourth defense of the belt he won back in May of 2015 with a win over Evgeny Gradovich and the fight is similar to the challenges he has been taking on. In Ramirez, he gets a fighter who is coming to Selby’s backyard for his first world title fight. Ramirez fought twice in 2017, going 1-0-1 in fights that wnt down in Uruguay and the United States, so this is the 24 year old’s first fight in the U.K.
Undefeated Anthony Yarde (13-0) takes on the experienced Nikola Sjekloca (32-4-1) in defense of a pair of WBO regional titles. Yarde has gone 3-0 so far in 2017 and he has grabbed British and European titles along the way. Sjekloca has been in there with the likes of Callum Smith, Robert Steiglitz, Arthur Abraham and Sakio Bika so he has loads of experience.
The last fight at the books comes in the heavyweight division as prospect Daniel Dubois (5-0) faves veteran Dorian Darch (12-5-1). Dubois opened a roughly -5000 favorite and that has gone up to an astronomical -12500. At 20 years old the hyper athletic Dubois has already been pinned with the “prospect” label. Dubois was England’s best hope for Olympic gold in 2020 but he decided to turn pro early and he has won all of his pro fights by stoppage so far. Darch is a tough guy who has the likes of Anthony Joshua and Hughie Fury on his resume.
There are likely to be few surprises on this card in terms of results. Each of the favorites in the fights opened at least a four figure favorite (-1000) and the lines have only grown since then. Below are the latest lines. Several other regional title fights are on the card, check back later at your sports book to see if additional lines get added.
Copper Box Arena – London, England
Super Middleweight 12 rounds –
Caleb Truax +3500
James DeGale -8500
Featherweight 12 rounds –
Eduardo Ramirez +1150
Lee Selby -2125
Light Heavyweight 12 rounds –
Nikola Sjekloca +1750
Anthony Yarde -4375
Heavyweight 10 rounds –
Dorian Darch +2800
Daniel Dubois -12500
British Boxing Odds / Check out more boxing news and features at The Sweet Science.
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