The Pacquiao Matthysse odds offer some interesting insight into tonight’s bout in that they show, beyond doubt, how this is not a foregone conclusion for either boxer.

Manny Pacquiao will challenge Lucas Matthysse for the WBA ‘Regular’ world welterweight title tonight in Malaysia and will be coming off a healthy layoff (by his standards) since losing his WBO title to Jeff Horn last year.

Most agree that Pacquiao was nowhere near his best last year and that he is not the fighter he once was but, that said, he didn’t look to have the old fire either and didn’t appear to train as hard as he usually does in the preparation.

Not the case this time around though. He looked in excellent shape at the weigh-in, as did the champion to be fair.

This is reflected in the closeness of the odds: (Hat tip Odds Checker)

As you can see Pacquiao is the slight favorite to win outright, by any method, but many will be tempted to lump on Matthysse after the last poor performance from Pacquiao and the fact he’s without Freddie Roach tonight.

For more value, here’s a look at the other method of victory markets:

Personally I don’t see Pacquiao knocking out Matthysse.

He hasn’t knocked someone out in a very long time and at around 4/5 to win by decision, this is likely where a lot of the money will go tonight by punters worldwide.