Boxing Betting / Ralph Ellis / 12 August 2010 /

Ralph Ellis explains why Wales are the best football team in the world before discussing Carl Froch's chances of triumphing in the Super Six World Series.

If football was run like boxing then John Toshack would this morning be wearing a Lonsdale Belt that proclaimed his Wales team were the greatest team in the world.
How's that? Well, inspired by Craig Bellamy, they thrashed Luxembourg 5-1 last night.

In turn, Luxembourg beat Switzerland when they met at the start of qualifying for the last World Cup, and of course the Swiss opened their tournament in South Africa by becoming the only side to win over Spain, who ended up with the trophy. Follow the form line and you'll see why the Welsh are now world champions, and it's time to start lumping on for them to be triumphant at Euro 2012 at anywhere between [400.00] and [990.00]!

Okay, so you're resisting that particular bargain bet. A load of Tosh, you might say. But try the Queensberry rules and it's amazing how often that sort of logic is used to push a fighter up the rankings. There's so much smoke and mirrors about so many title contenders, who create long unbeaten records without ever stepping into the ring against somebody who might hit them back.

That's one of the reasons why the Super Six World Series has caught the imagination so well. It will end with one of the top fighters - and it could yet be Nottingham's Carl Froch - being crowned undisputed champion in the super middleweight division. Whoever collects the title will deserve it because they won't have been able to dodge meeting any of their serious rivals.

Froch's chances have received a boost today after the Showtime network announced the tiebreak rules in case any of them are on the same points score after their three round-robin bouts. They've decided in that case the head-to-head result will separate the fighters, meaning Froch's points win over Andre Dirrell will give him a big advantage.

It means by the time Froch goes into the ring with Arthur Abraham on October 2 he could already be guaranteed a semi-final slot - assuming the fights a week earlier go to form and Andre Ward beats Dirrell while Mikkel Kessler puts away Allan Green.

That puts some value into Betfair's market because Froch, priced between [7.2] and [22.0] to win the Super Six series, is currently fifth in the betting yet he's virtually guaranteed to line up in the top four. It's a bargain bet because the Nottingham man has only one defeat on his career record, and that was the disputed points decision against Kessler earlier this year. And no, his unbeaten sequence before that was definitely not a smoke and mirrors job. His route to a 16-month reign as WBC champion was, if anything, held up because other fighters avoided meeting him.

Former Olympic Gold medallist Ward, who began the Super Six as one of the outsiders, is now odds on at [1.94] but I fancy that's worth laying. He caught out a complacent Kessler at the start of the series, but then couldn't put away the inexperienced Green and needed a points decision, even if it was very one-sided. He's certain of a semi-final place, but I can't help feeling he's favourite here on the same sort of flawed logic that would make Wales the champions of the world.

Five things you might not know about Allan Green

1. Born September 1979 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his middle name is Lamar. His father Richard was also a professional boxer

2. His parents got divorced when he was five and he moved to California with his Mum two years later. He says waving his dad goodbye was the only time in his life he can remember crying

3. Dad was in his corner when he had his first amateur bout as a 16-year-old, and told him 'stop dancing and knock this guy out'. He did!

4. He suffered a severe case of colitis in 2008 and needed surgery to remove 85 per cent of his colon.

5. He has a habit of staring at his own feet for a second before resuming action after being told by the referee to break

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>

:

:

:

?

: