Pacquiao vs. Diaz WBC Lightweight Betting - Sportsbook.com

[Qbins Missile Crisis]

BOX: Pacquaio steps up as the favorite

Manny Pacquiao is stepping up to the heaviest weight of his boxing career but that isn’t scaring the oddsmakers, who made him a -500 favorite against WBC Lightweight titleholder David Diaz.

Pacquiao, who fought his last eight fights at the Super Featherweight division of 130-pounds, enters the ring Saturday to fight at 135-pounds against the naturally heavier Diaz.

In fact, when these two fighters began their careers there was 36 pounds in weight difference between them. Pacquiao has worked his way up the scales since starting his career at 106-pounds while Diaz started at 142 pounds and has slowly worked down.

Will the added weight finally start to catch up with the ‘Pac Man’ from the Philippines?

Bet on Pacquiao at -500 or Diaz at +350 and then watch the fight on HBO PPV beginning at 10 pm ET. You can also bet on the final result of the fight and the round the fight will end.

A potential indicator that Pacquiao will succeed at the higher weight is that the southpaw fighter felt he had to starve himself to make weight in his recent fights. Moving up a weight class, Pacquiao won’t have to lose as much weight before stepping on the scales and maintaining a more consistent weight from weigh-in to the fight may work to his advantage.

“I think he can handle it, but we won't know until the fight if he can take the power of a 135-pound guy,” said Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach. “I believe his punch and speed will be there but we can only guess right now. It could be like (Ricky) Hatton when he moved to welterweight. He didn't have the same power or strength.”

Pac Man, 46-3-2 in his pro career, won a split decision against Juan Manuel Marquez back in March this year and hasn’t lost since being on the wrong end of a unanimous decision to Erik Morales in March, 2005.

The loss to Morales has since been avenged twice by Pacquiao. The Philippine fighter, nicknamed the Mexicutioner, has defeated Morales twice since, the first win a 10th-round TKO, the second a 3rd-round knockout.

Diaz, a 32-year-old from Chicago, has also beaten the aging Morales, earning a unanimous decision over the Mexican superstar less than a year after Pac Man knocked him out.

A bigger and stronger fighter, Diaz will have a strength advantage against the naturally smaller Pacquiao. Despite that, he knows he still isn’t getting much respect from the oddsmakers.

“By now you'd think some people would give me a little bit of a chance, but that's all right,” he said. “The only thing that really matters is when your hand is raised.”