BetUS Boxing Betting Odds:

Super Middleweights - 12 Rounds

May 16 -- San Jose

ANDRE WARD -300

EDISON MIRANDA +220

Over 9.5 Rounds -115

Under 9.5 Rounds -115

For online betting purposes, let's size up the contestants:

WARD (18-0, 12 KO's), the -300 favorite in the BetUS boxing betting odds, is in for the biggest test of his career as he faces Edison Miranda. Ward was a great amateur boxer, having first won national championships at 165 and 178 pounds, the surging to the light heavyweight gold medal for the United States in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. This native of the Bay Area turned pro in December of 2004 with a stoppage of Chris Molina. He was brought along pretty slowly at first, the turned up his competition level a bit in July of 2007 when he scored a third-round stoppage of Francisco Diaz. Rubin Williams was a veteran who had previously fought for a world title, and he was Ward's opponent in March of 2008. Williams lasted seven rounds before the doctor stopped the fight on cuts. Ward then stopped Jerson Ravelo, a 2000 Olympian, in eight rounds to win the NABO title. In his last fight, he was supposed to get his stiffest test yet, but he scored a shutout on all three cards over Henry Buchanan to win the NABF crown.

MIRANDA (32-3, 28 KO's), the +220 underdog at BetUS, had about 150 amateur bouts in his native Colombia before turning pro in March of 2001. Each of his first 17 fights ended in first or second-round knockouts, and won the vacant NABA middleweight title (a regional championship) with a 12-round decision over Jose Varela in June of '05. Once he got to a higher level, his string of early knockouts more or less stopped (excluding a KO-1 of Willie Gibbs a year and a half ago). He was able to stop the aforementioned Eastman in seven rounds, but then lost his title opportunity when Abraham scored a unanimous decision. The next big fight was an eliminator against Kelly Pavlik in which he lost on a seventh-round TKO, a fight Pavlik absolutely dominated. After scoring a couple of wins against lesser-lights, he got a rematch with Abraham, this time at super middleweight, and was dispatched after going down three times in the fourth round. In his last fight, on March 20, he beat someone named Joey Vegas on a fifth-round TKO in London.

Unquestionably, Miranda's power is dangerous in this fight. That is one thing he can certainly do. But beyond that, he is somewhat limited. He isn't a very good technical boxer and there have to be questions, not only about his chin but also about his wherewithal, because the image of him fighting Kelly Pavlik is still etched in my mind. Miranda kind of fits the profile of the classic bully, in that he looks fearsome until the other guy starts to fight back, and when that happens, he sometimes folds like a cheap accordion. That performance against Pavlik was pretty disgraceful.

I know that Miranda's position, and that if his handlers, was that he was not fighting at the weight hat was right for him, bringing up questions as to how ell he was actually being handled (hey, you can't have it both ways, guys). So he moves to 168 and gets pummeled by Abraham in the rematch. He's out of excuses.