Top Boxing Betting Picks of the Week – July 23rd Edition

This weekend we bring four boxing matches for your sports betting consideration, starting with a pair of title bouts on Friday in Xiamen, China. Sho Kimura takes on Froilan Saludar, as Kimura looks to defend his WBO flyweight title. CP Freshmart also takes the ring in Xiamen against Chaozhong Xiong in Freshmart’s WBA strawweight title defense. On Saturday, Christopher Diaz and Masayuki Ito duke it out for the vacant WBO junior lightweight title on ESPN+. On the same day, Mikey Garcia and Robert Easter Jr. meet for a WBC/IBF lightweight unification bout on Showtime. Take a look at our boxing betting previews for each tilt.

Top Boxing Betting Picks of the Week – July 23rd Edition

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Sho Kimura vs Froilan Saludar

This fight features an exciting title defense by Kimura, who delivered a stunning upset over Zou Shiming to take the WBO flyweight belt a year ago. He made his first successful title defense on New Year’s Eve in Japan, stopping Toshiyuki Igarashi with a knockout in the ninth round. Kimura has an 18-bout unbeaten streak (16-1-2 overall) and ranks #5 in the world in Fightful’s Boxing Rankings, in the flyweight division. Saludar has never made a world title challenge before, but his 28-2-1 record is impressive. His two losses came to former world champ McWilliams Arroyo and bantamweight contender Takuma Inoue. He has fought five times since that loss to Inoue in 2016 and has won eacho f them via knockout, four of them coming in the fifth round or sooner. He is ranked in the top 10 in the IBF, WBO and WBA rankings for the 112-pound division. However, Kimura’s big win over Shiming makes him the favorite here. Boxing Betting Prediction: Kimura wins via knockout

Knockout CP Freshmart vs Chaozhong Xiong

Knockout CP Freshmart is the ring name for Thammanoon Niyomtrong, a Thai pro boxer who has held his strawweight belt since 2016. He is sponsored by CP Freshmart, a convenience store chain in Thailand. He has never lost a fight, posting a 17-0 record, most recently taking down Toto Landero back in March via unanimous decision. However, he has never fought outside Thailand. It is worth pointing out, though, that he has defended his title successfully four times, three by decision and once by TKO. Chaozhong Xiong held the WBC strawweight belt from 2012 to 2014. He has a lifetime record of 27-7-1, with 14 of those wins (and one of those losses) coming via knockout. He won his last bout, beating Petchmanee Kokietgym by majority decision in October. He lost his bout before that, losing to Jose Antonio Jimenez via split decision in May 2016. The fact that he has fought just once in the last 24 calendar months suggests that there will be some rust to shake off. Boxing Betting Prediction: Knockout CP Freshmart wins via knockout

Christopher Diaz vs Masayuki Ito

This fight for the vacant WBO junior lightweight belt that was abandoned when Vasiliy Lomachenko won the world lightweight belt in a knockout win over Jorge Linares. Diaz (23-0) has won 15 of his bouts via knockout and has four knockout wins in a rowl most recently stopping Braulio Rodriguez in the fourth round on March 17. Ito (23-1-1) has won 12 of his bouts by knockout and leaves Japan to fight for the first time in his career, which dates back to 2009. He has not faced any well-known opponents to this point, but he has a seven-bout winning streak that goes back to February 2015, when he took a majority decision loss over ten rounds. Boxing Betting Prediction: Diaz wins via knockout

Mikey Garcia vs Robert Easter Jr.

This one is a bout that Easter hopes will give him the respect that he feels he has earned over the course of a successful career. He has a 21-0 record (14 KO), but his last fight brought a close split decision win over Javier Fortuna back on January 20, in which Easter needed a point deduction from Fortuna to gain the win. At 5-11, he has more size than most of his opponents in the 135-pound division, but he still needs to work on using his advantages in reach and size. He brought in Kevin Cunningham, a specialist on those areas of boxing, to help him train to fight Garcia. Garcia (38-0) is the elite competition that Easter has been waiting for. He won a 140-pound title when he beat Sergey Lipinets in a unanimous decision victory on March 30. However, he then left the super-lightweight division to face Easter for the title unification bout. Given the problems that Easter had with Fortuna, it’s hard to like him as the favorite here. Boxing Betting Prediction: Garcia wins via decision