Right now, there are only a handful of lines up for boxing at the sport books. The big event is Saturday, airing on HBO from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada as Light Heavyweight superstar Sergey Kovalev returns to face Nadjib Mohammedi. The twelve round bout has no over-under posted, and the line sees Kovalev a massive (-10000) favorite over Mohammedi, who is coming back at (+4000). Kovalev (27-0-1) is known for his bludgeoning style, and he is best remembered as the man who defeated Bernard Hopkins late last year. In March of this year, he defended the WBA, IBF and WBA World titles against Canadian Jean Pascal by earning an eighth round stoppage. That fight supposedly earned Kovalev the WBC’s “Diamond” belt, and it made him the mandatory title defense for WBC World titleholder Adonis Stevenson. Unfortunately, the boxing politics between HBO and Stevenson’s advisory team led by All Haymon were not able to come to a deal and that fight did not happen. Instead, Kovalev finds himself facing Mohammedi, who is a former EU Light Heavyweight champion. Back in December of 2010, Mohammedi failed in a bid to win the interim WBO World title when he faced Britain’s Nathan Cleverly. His last loss came in October of 2011 when he was stopped by Dmitry Sukhotsky, and he has won 13 fights in a row since themn to move his record to (37-3). Mohammedi has been fighting at a high level for regional belts for many years, and he captured the minor WBF Lightheavyweight title in June of 2012 with a stoppage win over Doudou Ngumbu, but there is little on his resume that prepares him for what he is about to face in Kovalev. For Kovalev, there has been a lot of talk of big money fights, and a meeting down the line with the likes of Andre Ward and Adonis Stevenson may still happen. This Saturday, rival Jean Pascal (29-3-1) faces Yunieski Gonzalez (16-0) and since pascal’s March of 2015 showing against Kovalev was considered to be one of the Russian “Krusher”’s toughest challenges, HBO may be lining up a re-match between the two. Certainly Pascal has campaigned for a re-match claiming a bad stoppage in what was a very competitive fight. Another line popping up at 5DIMES comes to us from Los Mochis, Mexico this Saturday as Flyweights Oswaldo Novoa and Moises Fuentes are scheduled to go 10 rounds. The book has Novoa a big underdog at (+1300), with the favorite Fuentes returning (-3000). The card is promoted by Fernando Beltran’s Promociones Zanfer and airs on Mexico’s Azteca Television so several of the other bouts scheduled may yet appear at the books. Also on Saturday, the “Premier Boxing Champions” series returns to the NBC Sports Networkd with a match-up pitting Beibut Shumenov (15-2) against BJ Flores (31-1-1) for the interim WBA Cruiserweight title, so look for more lines to hit later in the week.
