The First Direct Arena in Leeds will see an intriguing title fight take place this Saturday evening in the featherweight division. Josh Warrington and Luis Alberto Lopez contest the IBF World Featherweight Title with Warrington stepping into the ring as the defending champion and home favourite, while Mexico’s Lopez comes into the match up undefeated since 2019 on a nine-fight winning streak.
We look at the best odds and betting opportunities on this bout with bookmaker William Hill, and offer our expert predictions.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: December 10th, 1:00 A.M. (EST)
The outright winner odds ahead of this fight indicate that the IBF World Featherweight title will be hotly contested. William Hill has Josh Warrington the slight favourite with odds of 1.73, which is narrowly ahead of Luis Alberto Lopez’s odds of 2.10. In essence, this one is neck-and-neck and could go either way.
Josh Warrington has all the advantages of fighting in front of a home crowd this Saturday night, having been born and raised in Leeds, England. Warrington is in an interesting stage of his career—on the one hand, he is the defending IBF World Featherweight Champion, having won the belt off Kiko Martinez in March 2022 with a seventh round knockout. On the other hand, Warrington has suffered the only blemishes on his record in the past 18 months—in 2021 alone, he suffered a defeat and a draw at the hands of Mauricio Lara that has taken his professional record to 31-1-1.
Luis Alberto Lopez will be the underdog both in the betting odds and in terms of crowd support this weekend. The Mexican has been in hot form however, winning his last nine fights in a row, including two wins already in 2022 with one over Yeison Vargas in August and another over Raul Chirino in April. Lopez has an impressive record, however this fight will be a step up for the boxer given that the majority of his success has come in the domestic circuit.
Looking at the method of result odds, this fight is likely to go one of two ways. Either Warrington outboxes Lopez and gets a decision or Lopez comes out aggressive and scores a knockout.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: December 10th, 1:00 A.M. (EST)
Odds for either of these outcomes are close with a Warrington decision the favourite at 2.25 and a Lopez knockout just behind at 2.75. For Warrington, he’s a skilled boxer who knows how to out-manoeuvre and win on points with about half of his victories coming that way. Lopez, on the other hand has a power game and has won his last three fights by knockout and seven of his last nine overall.
We think that fighting in front of a home crowd and determined to hang on to the belt he’s just won will boost Warrington enough to edge this one. Take him in a decision win at 2.25 but expect this to be a close affair that could even see the home favourite knocked down on his way to victory.
