Ward vs Brand Boxing Odds And More – This Saturday night in Oakland, Andre Ward returns to take on Alexander Brand in a bout set to air on HBO Boxing. Ward, is undefeated at 29-0 and he is looking for his second win as a light heavyweight since relinquishing multiple world titles at super middleweight. Brand brings a 25-1 record built up mainly in fights in his native Colombia.
Right now the books have Ward a titanic -9000 favorite, with Brand returning at +3750. There is no over/under posted, but one may pop up later in the week. If it does you may want to check the over, as Ward may wind up going the distance with the unorthodox Brand.
Brand is just that, unorthodox, but he comes forward, and someone as precise as Ward will be looking to pick him apart. Ward has had his eye on Brand as an opponent, for a while as they originally were scheduled to face each other last November on the undercard of the “Canelo” Alvarez vs Miguel Cotto PPV. Ward cancelled that fight, but now here is Brand again. Ward was looking to get one more fight in before his scheduled November showdown with world titleholder Sergey Kovalev and Brand seems like a risk-free choice. The big question will be is whether Ward will take some chances to up his chances of a highlight type of fight, or will he fight safely as he has been known to do in the past.
Kovalev is coming off a fight a couple of weeks ago in his native Russia against Isaac Chilemba that was his “tune-up” for the Ward bout. Kovalev won that fight, but the performance was not one that elevated Kovalev. Now HBO is hoping for Ward to be spectacular so that this fight serves as a 2 hour infomercial style advertisement for November’s fight.
Currently, the highly respected Transnational Boxing Rankings Board has Kovalev ranked #2 and Ward ranked #6 on their current P4P Top Ten. Check out the latest Boxing rankings at TBRB.org. Despite the high ranking of both men, neither is considered a cross over draw, so the PPV numbers for the November fight will tell us if the inner is ready to be a break out star. Ward should consider putting the pedal to the metal in this one, as he has at times been labelled methodical. Brand is there with absolutely nothing to lose, and if he gets lucky and pulls out the win he will leave a lot of HBO executives pulling their hair out.
Check out the latest Talk ‘n’ Shoot video blog for more on the Andre Ward vs Alexander Brand match-up.
Ward vs Brand Boxing Odds And More
Below is a listing of additional lines that have popped up at the sports books in the last twenty four hours.
Fri 8/5 Super Featherweight 12 rounds – Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Jack Asis +800 o8½ +120
Malcolm Klassen -1475 u8½ -160
Fri 8/5 2300 Arena – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – ESPN
Super Middleweight 10 rounds –
Denis Douglin +1250
David Benavidez -2000
Lightweight 10 rounds –
Stephen Ormond +150
Alejandro Luna -180
Sat 8/6 Casino Del Sol – Tucson, Arizona – UniMas
Super Lightweight 10 rounds –
Cesar Vazquez +3500
Juan Diaz -10000
Sat 8/6 Lebrun Arena – Bedford, Canada
Super Bantamweight 10 rounds –
Javier Franco +3000
Tyson Cave -7500
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Ward vs Brand Boxing Odds And More
