Boxing Odds & Predictions: Lamont Peterson vs. Victor Cayo

Written by Jake Thompson
Friday, 29 July 2011 19:23

It’s time to check out the betting odds and make predictions in tonight’s boxing match between Victor Cayo and Lamont Peterson.

The boxing match between Lamont Peterson (28-1-1) and Victor Cayo (16-1-0) will be televised live on ESPN2 at 9:00 PM ET, and this junior welterweight clash will be an eliminator with the winner getting a mandatory shot at unified champion Amir Khan assuming he doesn’t vacate to move up a class.  The boxing odds show that Peterson is the -210 favorite with Cayo returning +175 and the over 9.5 rounds set as the hefty -310 betting favorite.  We’ll take a look at both fighters and then let everyone know how we think this Friday Night Fights match will end up.

Peterson is coming off a draw to Victor Ortiz and his only career loss was a 12-round unanimous decision defeat at the hands of one of the best in Timothy Bradley.  He doesn’t pack a ton of power and will be giving up the height and the reach advantages to Cayo, but Peterson is the better technical boxer and has also proven himself against a much higher level of competition.  I’d also consider him the smarter boxer, although his willingness to occasionally eat shots scares me a bit despite the fact that he’s never been knocked out.

Cayo fights a bit unorthodox at times and has issues with blocking punches because he leaves his hands low.  The upside to that is his opponents find it harder to see the blows coming, but against a fighter as skilled as Peterson that might end up being his undoing.  Peterson doesn’t have a ton in the way of knockout power but he does have a few big advantages in this fight.  First off, Cayo has faced very few top-level boxers and it is tough to gauge his skills since he’s been fighting guys that he should be able to beat easily.  Second, ever since his KO loss via body blow to Marcos Maidana, Cayo has taken two easy fights that only went a combined 3 rounds.  Not only do we not know if he can go 12 rounds here, but we also have to figure ring rust into the equation since Cayo hasn’t fought since October of 2010.

All in all, predictions are for Peterson to drop a couple of the early rounds as he gets used to the awkward style that Cayo can present.  Peterson’s chin should allow him a couple of mistakes before he gets into a rhythm, and after about round 4 I expect the betting favorite to start to dominate.  Cayo will struggle to connect with anything and I believe that Peterson will use his jab and speed to easily cruise to a decision.

Boxing Prediction: Peterson via unanimous decision