Canelo Alvarez Betting Odds Shift Ahead Of Boxing PPV Event vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr

To little surprise, Canelo Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) enters his Saturday pay-per-view fight in Las Vegas with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs) as the clear favorite. According to betting site VegasInsider.com, the middleweight champion is a -600 favorite over Chavez, who is at +450, while Bovada.lv lists Alvarez at -650 and Chavez at +425.

Alvarez had previously entered the fight at -900 odds with Chavez the underdog at +550, according to a sportsbook in January.

Alvarez, one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world, is coming off a technical knockout win over Liam Smith in September and a brutal knockout of Amir Khan in May 2016. Alvarez's signature win was a unanimous decision over Miguel Cotto in November 2015. Cotto had entered the fight with three straight wins and nearly 15 years of experience.

Chavez will be seeking an upset, but based on odds from Alvarez's last three fights, he might not like his chances. Alvarez was the (-1200) favorite over Smith (+700), while also the -300 favorite over Khan (+240). Against Cotto, Alvarez was favored at -250, with Cotto listed as a +250 underdog.

But boxing doesn't always go according to plan and Alvarez's camp may not feel this fight will be as one-sided as the other recent bouts. Chavez is reportedly in excellent condition and changing up his game plan against the hard-punching Alvarez.

"When we signed this fight, there was part of me that said, 'Canelo will walk right through him,'" Alvarez's promoter Oscar De La Hoya said on April 20. "But right now I feel it’s going to be a very difficult matchup for Canelo, but we have full confidence that he’s ready."

De La Hoya said he's become nervous about the outcome, in part due to Chavez being trained by Ignacio "Nacho" Beristain, who is expected to change the 31-year-old's tactics and style.

Adding to the intrigue of Alvarez-Chavez is the 164.5-pound catch-weight. Alvarez fought Smith at 154 pounds, making this a big jump in weight.

In his last two fights, Chavez earned 10-round unanimous decision wins over German Dominik Britsch in Monterrey, Mexico, and Mexican Marcos Reyes in El Paso, Texas. Neither Britsch nor Reyes is considered an elite super middleweight and Chavez fought Britsch at a 169-pound catch-weight.

The big question surrounding Chavez is whether he has sufficiently overcome the losses to Andrzej Fonfara in April 2015 and Sergio Martinez in September 2012. Martinez, once considered among the best pound-for-pound boxers, is probably the toughest opponent Chavez has ever fought, making this matchup with Alvarez all the more noteworthy.