Billy Joe Saunders v Marcelo Esteban Coceres Winner odds & predictions

Billy Joe Saunders © imago images / Action Plus 08.11.2019

This WBO super-middleweight title showdown sees Britain’s Billy Joe Saunders trying to take a step forward to bigger things. Bigger things in his eyes is a shot against Canelo Alvares. First, he will be dealing with Argentina’s Martin Esteban Coceres at the Staples Centre in LA in the early hours of Sunday morning. This is on the undercard strangely to the KSI v Logan Paul fight.

Billy Joe Saunders v Marcelo Esteban Coceres Odds*

Billy Joe Saunders 1/100
Draw 33/1
Marcelo Esteban Cóceres 17/1
* (Betting Odds were taken from bet365 on November 7th, 2019 at 6:35 p.m.)

Boxing Betting at Bet365

Will Saunders pull off title defence?

Billy Joe Saunders puts his WBO super-middleweight title on the line and this was expected to be something of a comfortable defence for him. Get through this step and there could well be a career-defining fight ahead for him. Saunders has a 28-0 career record and this is a chance to build a bigger profile for himself in the USA, which he doesn’t have.

Total Rounds Under 7/5
4/5

Betfair

The Southpaw got his hands on the then-vacant super-middleweight title back in May with a unanimous decision over Germany’s Shefat Isufi. That added to his WBO middleweight title which he has defended on more than one occasion. This will be his first title defence therefore of the WBO super middleweight title and is at 4/11 to win this by a stoppage* (Betting Odds were taken from bet365 on November 7th, 2019 at 6:35 p.m.).

Coceres punching above his weight?

This is the first professional fight in the USA that Coceres will have undertaken. More than that, this is his first ever fight against a world titleholder. So this is going to be some occasion for him and the likelihood is that he is going to be out of his depth. This is only the second time that the Argentine has fought outside of South America.

He holds the same 28-0 career record as Saunders does, however, he has fought absolutely nobody of note. It has just been a career of facing low-level opponents and will likely get badly exposed against the class of Saunders in this bout. It’s pretty tough to see him lasting the distance.

Betting Tip

Billy Joe Saunders Round 6 at 10/1
* (Betting Odds were taken from bet365 on November 7th, 2019 at 6:35 p.m.)

Prediction

Saunders has a narrow height and reach over his opponent. Coceres has gone through different weight classes and is ranked favourably in a few of them. But you can’t gloss over the fact that this is his biggest fight by a country mile and then some. Saunders will be looking to finish this early to send a message to someone like Alvares or Gennady Golokvin to line up against him next year.