Travis Kauffman vs Amir Mansour Preview March 17th
American heavyweights Travis Kauffman of Reading, Pennsylvania and Amir Mansour of Salem, New Jersey will be meeting for the vacant WBC United States Heavyweight title at the Santander Arena in Reading this Friday, March 17th, Saint Patrick’s Day. The 12-round bout can be seen live in the U.S. on Bounce TV. Kauffman last fought in September when he stopped Josh Gormley in the second round. Mansour was last in the ring in January of 2016 when he was stopped by Dominic Breazeale after the fifth round.
Kauffman vs Mansour Betting Odds
Here are the betting odds from online sportsbook BetOnline.ag (full review here).
- Amir Mansour -110
- Travis Kauffman -110
My Pick
The 31-year-old Kauffman enters the bout with a record of 31-1 with 23 Kos to his name. He’s a hard hitter with a current knockout ratio of 70 per cent. Kauffman isn’t the biggest heavyweight around, but he’s not small either as he stands 6-feet-3-inches in height with a reach of 76 inches. He has 108 rounds of experience under his belt since turning pro in 2006 and has wins against Gormley, Cliff Couser, Chris Koval, Ross Thompson and Epifanio Mendoza. His lone loss was a fourth-round Ko at the hands of Tony Grano in August of 2009.
Kauffman also dropped a 12-round decision to Chris Arreola in December of 2015, but the result was changed to a no-decision after Arreola failed a post-fight drug test. Kauffman may have a fine record and good power, but he hasn’t fought anybody who could be considered a top-10 contender other than Arreola so this is basically his second step up in class. He’s won 13 straight bouts, not counting the Arreola no-decision, with eight of them coming inside the distance and he’ll have the hometown fans behind him on Friday night.
The 44-year-old veteran southpaw Mansour is on a two-fight winless streak with his loss to Breazeale due to a bad mouth cut and a 10-round draw with Gerald Washington in December of 2015. In fact, he’s won just twice in his past five outings and may also have some ring rust since he hasn’t fought in 14 months. Mansour climbs into the ring with a record of 22-2-1 with 16 Kos. His other loss came at the hands of Steve Cunningham by way of 10-round unanimous decision in April of 2014 even though Cunningham was decked twice.
Mansour gives away two inches in height and two inches in reach as he stands 6-foot-1 and has a 74-inch wingspan. He turned pro in 1997 and has gone 110 rounds since then. He has pretty good power with a current knockout ratio of 64 per cent. He’s been pretty active since getting out of prison in 2010 after close to a decade out of boxing. Mansour’s biggest wins have been against Dominick Guinn, Epifanio Mendoza, Kelvin Price and Fred Kassi.
Prediction…
Both boxers have power so there could be a knockdown or two along the way and there’s a good chance the fight ends in a stoppage. However, predicting the winner is a tough task since they’ve both been stopped once in the past. Kauffman is slightly bigger, will be fighting at home and is quite a bit younger, but he’ll have to be able to handle Mansour’s aggressiveness and punching power. Age could be catching up to Mansour, so we’ll go with Kauffman here in a tossup bout.
As the odds show, both guys have a puncher’s chance and no result will be a shock.
Play: Kauffman -110 @ BetOnline.ag
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Amir Mansour betting • Travis Kauffman betting