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Wladimir Klitschko hasn’t lost a fight since 2004, and although that could change today when the Ukranian puts his heavyweight titles on the line against Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev, the champ is a fairly heavy favorite.
Klitschko (62-3, 53 KOs) has been the heavyweight champ for eight years. As Guy Docteci points out, the Ukranian’s reign is the second longest in history, trailing only Joe Louis’ 11-year reign.
He’ll take on Pulev (20-0, 11) at 4:45 p.m. Eastern at the O2 World Arena in Hamburg, Germany. The fight will be telecast live on HBO, with a re-broadcast scheduled for midnight Eastern. You can follow live updates on this post throughout the fight.
The handicappers at Bovada list Klitschko as a solid 1/6 favorite. Bovada lists Pulev’s odds at 4/1.
Bovada lists an over-under of 7 1/2 arounds and lists the most likely outcome as a Klitschko win by decision or technical decision, with odds of 2/1.
The odds of a Klitschko win in rounds 4 through 6 are 4/1, with a Klitschko win in the first three rounds at 5/1 and a Klitschko win in rounds 7 through 9 at 9/2.
The odds of a Pulev win in any particular scenario are fairly long. The most likely scenario is a Pulev win by decision or technical decision, but even that’s a fairly big longshot at 10/1. The Bulgarian has 20/1 odds of winning in rounds 4 through 6, 25/1 odds of winning in rounds 7 through 9 and 28/1 odds of winning in the first three rounds.