June 14 Thursday Night Boxing Odds

June 14 Thursday Night Boxing Odds – Thursday night sees Golden Boy Promotions back on ESPN2 with a pair of competitive regional title matches headlining.

The main event pits Mercito Gesta (31-2-2) against Robert Manzanares for the vacant WBO North American title at lightweight, while the co-feature sees featherweights Edgar Valerio (13-0) and Manny Robles Jr (15-0) meet for the vacant IBF North American title at 126 pounds. Both fights are getting competitive lines at the books.

For Oscar De La Hoya and GBP, it is a compact 5 fight boxing card Thursday at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California. Check your local listings for start times on ESPN2.

GBP’s main “cash cow” Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is suspended until September and negotiations for his rematch with Gennady Golovkin have not gone well. Ever since the retirement of Floyd Mayweather Jr, GBP has dogmatically stuck to the idea that Alvarez is the biggest draw in boxing. Though they have handled his career poorly, they still want to play “tough” in negotiations. It will be interesting to see what of this is mentioned on the ESPN2 broadcast.

The Gesta vs Manzanrez bout pits a pair of highly experienced south paws with a lot to lose.

Gesta is from the Philippines and he started his career boxing in south east Asia before moving to the United States ten years ago. Basically, he is a southern California fighter now and he is fighting as the hometown favorite. Gesta is coming off a loss in his last outing, when he took on the WBA world champion Jorge Linares. Gesta lost that one by unanimous decision. You have to go back to 2012 to find Gesta’s only other loss and that came in a world title fight against then IBF titlist Miguel Vasquez. Gesta is now 30 years old and he still has aspirations of a world title. That means he needs a win this Thursday.

Manzanarez needs to win for different reasons. He has fought a pair of eight round bouts in the USA but this is his first “real” competition outside of his native Mexico. He fought a six round bout in March of this year, and that was a comeback after almost a year layoff. Perhaps he was waiting for a shot like this, and at 23 years old time is on his side. Despite questions about his competition level overall, Manzanares enters fight week a slight favorite.

The featherweight co-feature sees undefeated up and comers Manny Robles Jr (24 years old) and Edgar Valerio (23 years old) square off for an IBF title. Both men have been working their way up the ranks, with Robles Jr watched over by his family while Valerio is managed by GBP’s Joe De La Hoya. This can be considered a stp-up fight for both men. It is a boxing cliche to say “someone’s O must go” but it is the truth here. Both men have gotten here by putting in the steady work while rising up the ranks and both men want to avoid that first blemish on their records.