Posted on 12/7/2007 6:20:53 PM

Boxing Betting – Pointspread on Mayweather vs. Hatton Fight

By Charles Jay

Yes folks, you CAN bet the pointspread on a professional fight. And I'm going to show you how this works.

BetUS Boxing Betting Odds:

WBC Welterweight (147-lb.) title

December 8 -- Las Vegas

FLOYD MAYWEATHER -240

RICKY HATTON +190

Over 11.5 Rounds -300

Under 11.5 Rounds +200

If you have read any previous pieces by me, you know that I like Mayweather to win this fight, but not necessarily without a struggle. And I think it will go the distance. That brings the scorecards into play. In addition to all the other betting options, BetUS has boxing propositions for this as well. Here are a couple of them:

MAYWEATHER -19.5 pts. +200

HATTON +19.5 pts. -300

MAYWEATHER -29.5 pts. +300

HATTON +29.5 pts. -500

Since I practically invented this kind of proposition about 20 years ago, I think I can explain it sufficiently. You just take the three judges' scorecards at the end of the fight, add them up, and calculate the difference. Therefore, for example, if Mayweather wins the fight by ten points on all three judges's scorecards, he wins by 30 points, and beats the -29.5. Another example is admittedly bizarre, but illustrative of an instance where the winner of the fight can be the loser of this prop, even if it's straight-up. In a 1979 fight between Carlos Zarate and Lupe Pintor, Pintor won by one point on two of the judges' cards and lost by 12 points on the other! In this case he would have been the LOSER by 10 points in the proposition, though he was the winner of the fight itself.

Another thing I should mention - if either of the two fighters wins by a KO, TKO, disqualification or technical decision (which usually happens when the fight is stopped on an accidental cut and the commission goes to the scorecards at the time of the stoppage), the fighter who wins the fight as a result will be the winner of the proposition, regardless of what the scoring is at the time of the stoppage.

Let's get back to the pointspread props in front of us. When you look at the fight Mayweather has won by a near-shutout, at least on a championship level, they involve fighters who were limited enough where they would be dominated by the Pretty Boy. For instance, Carlos Baldomir, who fought Mayweather last November, lost by 32 total points (12 points on two cards and eight on the other). But since there was a difference of light years in terms of speed, Baldomir was the kind of fighter who was going to find himself befuddled unless he could just maul Floyd, which didn't happen. Mayweather was dominant against Zab Judah, but beat him by only 20 total points because Judah was fresh early and won some rounds with speed.

Mayweather beat DeMarcus Corley by 33 points a few years ago, but Corley, who has lost four of his six fights since, was going to be outclassed no matter what. Others, like Victoriano Sosa, Carlos Hernandez and Carlos Rios - all of which lost by ten points or more on at least one card to Mayweather - were not in Hatton's class. If you're going to back Floyd in this prop at -29.5, you'll probably have to hope for something along the lines of his performance against the late Diego Corrales, where he dominated virtually every second of every round against a formidable opponent before ending it in the 10th. I would back Hatton, even if I had to lay 5/1.

I would actually stay away from laying or taking 19.5 points. While I feel Mayweather is perfectly capable of getting past this threshold, I don't know that there is a 33.3% chance of it happening. And even though I wouldn't disqualify that we could see scorecards not unlike those in Floyd's fight with Oscar De La Hoya, I don't feel all that comfortable with Hatton taking that number.

One pointspread prop I DO like, though, is this one:

MAYWEATHER +6.5 -400

HATTON -6.5 +250

First of all, if Hatton wins this fight, I could only see him squeaking it out by the hair of his chinny-chin-chin. That may mean a split or majority decision, which would put us in very good shape with this prop. I do not think he will knock Mayweather out, and if Mayweather wins the fight, YOU will win.

Well, unless it's a repeat of the Pintor-Zarate fight.

Good luck.

Betting on boxing has never been so easy and you can get your bets in now in the BetUS sportsbook. Go to Other Sports: Boxing. Find tons of props on the fight and the fighters in the Future / props section as well!

(Charles Jay of TotalActionExtra.com is a former manager, matchmaker and color commentator in professional boxing. He currently pulls no punches in the BetUS Locker Room)