Anthony Joshua v Kubrat Pulev Betting Odds Preview – June 20, 2020

anthony joshua
Anthony Joshua

Attention! The Anthony Joshua v Kubrat Pulev boxing match will be postponed due to the novel Coronavirus pandemic, and will not be held at the original June date.

Anthony Joshua‘s next fight in which he will defend all of his three heavyweight titles is finally confirmed. His opponent is the mandatory challenger, the Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev. The fight will take place in Tottenham Hotspur’s newly constructed stadium on 20 June and it is very likely that it will mark the beginning of a very exciting second half of the year in which heavyweight boxing will be in everyone’s focus.

This is because in the second half of 2020 there is a rematch of the Fury vs Wilder boxing extravaganza, which is scheduled for July 2020, and there is every chance that we will see a unification fight taking place in December between either one of Joshua, Fury or Wilder.

Joshua goes into this fight in high spirits, after managing to beat Andy Ruiz Jr in their rematch. In doing so, he won back the world titles which he lost to the American six months earlier. Another factor which will make this fight more special for him is the fact that he is fighting in front of his home fans and their number will probably be north of 60,000. Considering that his last fight on English soil was in September 2018, Joshua will certainly be aching to impress his own after a wait of almost two years.

Challenging the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight champion is the former European amateur super-heavyweight top dog, Kubrat Pulev. The 38-year old Bulgarian has a decent record against British opposition and has managed to triumph over the likes of Matt Skelton, Michael Sprott, Dereck Chisora, and most recently, Hughie Fury. He will definitely be delighted to make it five-out-of-five against opponents from the British Isles, but Anthony Joshua will be a completely different proposition to Pulev’s previous opponents to say the least.

Bookmakers see this fight as one of three or four that will define the heavyweight landscape in these couple of years and have certainly outdone themselves when it comes to the variety of markets and betting propositions they offer. However, when it comes to which fighter will come out as the winner in the bout winner market, bookmakers offer similar odds to each other. They have little doubt that Anthony Joshua will promptly dispatch his challenger and the odds they offer reflect this quite clearly.

Event Date: June 20, 2020

Unibet

unibetIf you are willing to back the underdog, taking your heavyweight championship bet to Unibet might be the smartest thing that you will do today. This is because Unibet gives its new clients an enticing money back offer up to £25 on their first bet with them. This means that even your bet loses, you will be completely reimbursed by the betting operator.

As we said, this risk-free welcome offer enables boxing betting enthusiasts to make more outrageous bets and one such bet is certainly backing Kubrat Pulev to win this fight. This might sound like a bet which is a step too far for even the most thrill-seeking of punters, but when you consider the high odds that Pulev is given, this certainly makes sense.

The Bulgarian is given industry-high odds of 7/1 and at those odds backing him with a risk-free bet certainly seems like a no-brainer.

In contrast backing the reigning champion, Anthony Joshua comes at much, much lower odds of 1/10. What’s more, these odds are also slightly lower than other competing betting operators, which means that Unibet considers the fight to be as good as over even before it has began.

William Hill

william hillAnthony Joshua is William Hill’s undisputed favourite to win the championship fight on 20 June and for that prospect they give AJ odds of 1/10. This is completely understandable as Joshua is one of the rare fighters today who can be considered as the complete product. He is far more polished and rounded as a boxer than contemporaries such as the very impulsive Deontay Wilder and the highly inconsistent Tyson Fury and that will always make him the bookies’ favourite.

Kubrat Pulev may have lost only once in his long and illustrious career which stretches back to 2009, but he has never faced an opponent who is close to Joshua’s level. When he did, he was knocked out in the 5th round by the then lineal heavyweight title holder Wladimir Klitschko. The people at William Hill think that it will be more of the same here and that’s why they give the Bulgarian astronomical odds of 13/2 to win.

Coral

coralCoral is a betting operator which takes a lot of pride in offering punters a truly unique British betting experience especially when it comes to sports such as boxing, football, cricket and horse racing. You can bet your house that they will go the extra mile when a British competitor is involved in a fight and that certainly is the case here.

They offer slightly higher odds of 1/9 for their favourite, Anthony Joshua than other bookmakers, but punters will still be required to back Joshua with quite a substantial stake if they are to make decent profit. This is to be expected when you factor in that Joshua went 22 fights undefeated against some of the best boxers in the world and that his only defeat came at the hands of Andy Ruiz, a defeat which he promptly annulled by winning the rematch against the American.

That’s why it is ludicrous to expect that the man who will finally stand in the way of Joshua will be Kubrat Pulev. The only two people who could do that right now are Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury and that’s why Pulev is given odds of 11/2 by the British bookmaker.

Sportingbet

sportingbetSportingbet offers betting enthusiasts close to 30,000 daily bets and in its portfolio has over 90 sports for punters to choose from. Many of those sports and daily bets will have to take a back seat on 20 June because Joshua and Pulev will be in everyone’s focus at the 2020 summer solstice.

Of the two fighters, Joshua is once again the favourite with Sportingbet as they give him odds of 1/9 to win the fight. These odds will prove attractive to very few betting enthusiasts so a lot of them will have to back Joshua with a hefty stake.

However, a large stake can barely be considered a risk here as the two-time unified heavyweight champion won’t rest on his laurels and will make sure that his victory is never in question. Backing him is like taking your money to the bank.

For punters who consider themselves as risk-takers, backing the Draw outcome at odds of 33/1 must look very enticing. However, we would advise them to back that outcome with a smaller stake as draws occur very rarely in boxing and would instead direct them to backing Kubrat at odds of 11/2 as a slightly more realistic bet.