While the days of Mike Tyson facing Evander Holyfield at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas are long gone, there are still plenty of fantastic opportunities for betting on boxing matches.
Today, fighters such as Anthony Joshua and Manny Pacquiao make for thrilling viewing and who could forget the recent face-off between Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor?
If you’re looking to get in on the boxing betting action, we suggest reading our beginner’s guide thoroughly and doing plenty of research ahead of placing your first boxing wager.
A Guide to the Sport of Boxing
Boxing is a combat sport in which two fighters trade punches in an attempt to knock their opponent to the ground.
Unlike other combat sports, only the hands can be used to inflict the damage and no kicking, ground combat, or grappling is permitted.
Professional fights may last anywhere from 4-12 rounds, each lasting 3 minutes in length, and after every round both boxers have 60 seconds to go to their corner and recover with their trainer and assistants.
A boxing match can be won in the following ways:
- Knocking out the opponent (KO)
- Technical Knock Out
- By the judges’ decision if neither opponent was knocked out
- An opponent is disqualified
- An opponent quits or is too injured to continue fighting
How Boxing is Scored
Boxing matches are scored by three judges according to the 10-point must system. Rounds are scored by giving the winner of a round 10 points – you’ll be able to bet on individual rounds with online betting – while the loser of the round receives 9 points.
However, if a fighter is knocked down during a round, their opponent may win the round 10-8, and if a fighter is knocked down twice, the round will be score 10-7 to the winner.
Fighters may also lose points during a round if the referee concludes that he/she did something illegal during the round.
The scores of each judge are totalled at the end of the fight and the fighter deemed the winner by the most judges wins the match.
Boxing Betting Types
Many novice boxing bettors may be under the impression that the only bet available is the winner of the fight, however there are in fact many to choose from. Here are the most popular boxing betting types.
- Money Line Bets: a simple wager placed on which fighter you think will win the match.
- Over/Under Bets: boxing matches are scheduled to continue for a predetermined number of rounds and over/under bets allow you to wager on whether you think the fight will be decided in more (over) or less (under) rounds than predicted by the bookmakers.
- Prop Bets: there will likely be many options available for prop or proposition bets and these are usually wagers on events within the match which have little or no bearing on which fighter actually wins the match, for example, the total rounds of the fight.
Enjoy betting on this thrilling sport!