The last twenty four hours have seen the Several Bookmakers Sportbook put up a slew of additional lines on boxing action for the coming weekend. On Spike TV Friday night is the WBA World Welterweight title match between Erislandy Lara and Delvin Rodriguez, and that as well as the Artur Szpilka vs Manuel Quezada Heavyweight tilt have had lines posted for a while. The main events have Lara and Szpilka installed as massive favorites, and the lines added for three more bouts amount to basically more of the same. Below are the three new lines that have popped up for the “Premier Boxing Champions” event at the UIC in Chicago. The Artur Beterbiev vs Alexander Johnson bout will also air on the Spike TV broadcast, and the books have Beterbiev, who is (8-0) but has an extensive amateur background that sees him trying to fast-track his pro career, come in as a huge favorite. Light Heavyweight 12 rounds Alexander Johnson +3500 Artur Beterbiev -10000 Super Lightweight 10 rounds Ammeth Diaz +600 Anthony Peterson -1050 Light Heavyweight 10 rounds Anatoliy Dudchenko +1300 Eleider Alvarez -2575 Heavyweights take center stage this weekend as Finland’s Robert Helenius, New Zealand’s Joseph Parker and WBC World Champion Deontay Wilder are all in action. Wilder’s fight with Eric Molina will be airing on Showtime, and several more fights from that card have popped up at the books. More heavyweight action will be going down in Paris, as Carlos Takam faces Michael Sprott. This will be Takam’s second fight since dropping an October of 2014 bout to Alexander Povetkin, and he is widely expected to add a “W” in this one. Sprott is a tried and tested work-horse who had a career resurgence in November of 2013 when he won the “Prizefighter” tournament, but he is coming off back to back losses that did not see him get out of the first round. Below are the lines for two of the undercard fights to Wilder-Molina, and the line on takanm-Sprott. Lightweight 12 rounds – Bartow Arena – Birmingham, Alabama Dejan Zlaticanin +150 Ivan Redkach -190 Super Welterweight 10 rounds – Bartow Arena – Birmingham, Alabama Arman Ovsepyan +2500 Julian Williams -7500 Heavyweight 8 rounds – Cirque d’Hiver – Paris, France Michael Sprott +3000 Carlos Takam -11000 Over in England, the interim IBF World Bantamweight title is on the line as Japan’s Ryosuke Iwasa (19-1) takes on Bristol’s own Lee Haskins (31-3). The co-main event sees Bob Ajisafe (15-2) facing Daniel Wanyonyi (21-6) to fill the vacant Commonwealth title at Light Heavyweight. Iwasa may be worthy of a look, as he is 6 years younger than Haskins and has won 11 fights in a row. Haskins has maintained a solid record and he won the European title in his last outing back in February, but this is his first attempt at a world title. This line here is one of the few compettitve lines for this weekend. Bantamweight 12 rounds – Witchurch Sports Centre – Bristol, Avon, United Kingdom Ryosuke Iwasa +120 Lee Haskins -160 Light Heavyweight 12 rounds – Witchurch Sports Centre – Bristol, Avon, United Kingdom Daniel Wanyonyi +1500 Bob Ajisafe -4500 New York sees WBA “Super World” Featherweight champion Nicholas Walters facing the challenge of Miguel Marriaga in the main event, and Lightweights Felix Verdejo and Ivan Najera as co-mains in fights set to air on HBO in the United States. The live card has 8 fights set in total, and undefeated Light Heavyweight Sean Monaghan (24-0) sees his fight with Fulgencio Zuniga pop up at the books. Monaghan is a native New York and has been promoted by Top Rank very shrewdly. Though lines have not popped up on Mike Reed’s fight with Luis Joel Gonzalez, he is (14-0) and one of Top Rank’s best prospects at Super Lightweight. Light Heavyweight 10 rounds – Madison Square Garden – New York, New York Fulgencio Zuniga +1000 Sean Monaghan -2000
