Once the Super Bowl has taken place, what can New Yorkers be placing bets on? March gets off to a fantastic start with a massive boxing card at the Brooklyn Centre. Three world titles are on the line, including the knock-out king Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis. Gambling is so popular in New York and even more so since online sports betting was made legal three years ago. Since legalization, over $50 billion has been wagered. It’s now commonplace for each month to see a handle of over $2 billion in New York.
Sports betting is cyclical and the first three months of the year always see huge amounts wagered in New York. The Super Bowl and then March Madness are massively popular with the state’s gamblers. Starting the month of March with a triple world title bill isn’t going to hurt either. The stacked card sees Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis put his WBA ‘Super’ Lightweight title on the line against Lamont Roach. The challenger currently holds the WBA Super Featherweight title and steps up in weight to try and cause a big shock. Davis is unbeaten and all but two of his 30 wins have come inside the distance. This isn’t the big fight most fans want to see the champion involved in. Unification matches with Shakur Stevenson or Vasyl Lomachenko or a rematch with Ryan Garcia would attract even more attention and wagers.
New York online sportsbooks as per NY Bet website fully expect him to do just that. He’s on offer at -1800 to win with the challenger at +920. As well as the lightweight world title fight, it’s a big night for the super lightweight division. Both the WBA and WBC titles are being defended in New York on March 1. In a time when more unification fights are taking place, perhaps the two winners will meet at some point in the future. Jose Valenzuela is defending his WBA Super Lightweight title against Gary Antuanne Russell. The title defender has a record of 14 wins and two losses as a professional.
This is his first fight since beating Isaac Cruz last August to win the title but via a split decision. Cruz is one of only two boxers to go the distance with Davis and has since moved up a division. Valenzuela might not have expected to be in this position after a disappointing 2022 and 2023. He lost his unbeaten professional record, losing in three rounds to Edwin De Los Santos. The first fight after losing your unbeaten record is a vital one. Valenzuela lost again, this time on points to Chris Colbert. In a real make or break fight, he had a rematch with Colbert nine months later. He put his career back on track with a sixth round win and set up the title match that made him champion. Now he makes his first defence against Gary Antuanne Russell.
The challenger has won 17 of his 18 professional fights. All of his 17 wins have come inside the distance. His first three professional fights all ended in the first round and he didn’t hear the bell for round four until his ninth bout. His only professional loss came last June when losing to Alberto Puella in a fight for the interim WBC Super Lightweight title. It was a split decision and one of the judges scoring gave him the fight by nine points with the other two going for Puella by a narrow margin. A win here could see him challenge the WBC champion for his title and to avenge his only professional loss. He’s the +126 outsider to win this fight with the champion on offer at -174. –
Puella had his interim title upgraded to full champion and is also on this New York show and defends his WBC title against number one challenger Sandor Martin.. He’s won all 23 of his professional contests since turning professional ten years ago. Of his 23 victories, ten have come inside the distance.This is his first fight since beating Russell and a win here could well see that rematch or defending against Davis who’d have to step up in weight for the bout. He defends his title against the Spanish veteran Sandor Martin who has had 45 professional fights since 2011, losing only three of them. The two-time European champion has only lost once in the last eight years.
That was when facing Teofimo Lopez in 2022 and losing on a split decision. Lopez was knocked down in the second round, so this won’t be an easy defence for Puella. One minus for the challenger is that this is his first fight since December 2023. The odds being offered by New York sportsbooks indicate how close a fight this could be. FanDuel has both boxers at -116 at the time of writing this article. With odds like that, this is going to be a great fight to bet on, especially with in-play odds available.
