Amir Khan v Marco Antonio Barrera tips

International Lightweight Championship title fight
14th of March 2009 – 21:00 GMT

Sky Box Office brings you one of the highlights and most anticipated fight nights of the year as Amir Khan takes on the Mexican boxing legend Marco Antonio Barrera.

Bolton's finest will meet the world champion at Manchester's MEN Arena on the 14th of March and early indications from the bookmakers suggest it’ll be a very close fought bout.

The International Lightweight Championship fight marks Khan's biggest challenge to date as he tries to claim the scalp of one of boxing's biggest names. Khan is 1/1 with William Hill to defeat Barrera; those odds look good after Khan’s impressive victory over Oisin Fagan in December.

Many boxing fans see this as Khan’s coming of age fight. In the other corner, Barrera aged 35 has seen and done it all and having moved up to the lightweight division is aiming to become the first Mexican ever to win a title in four different weight divisions. Barrera has every chance of pulling this feat off and going down in the history books with the best current odds being 6/5 from Stan James, although most bookmakers (including Victor Chandler) mark him down at the same 1/1 price as Khan.

Khan v Barrera tops the bill on a fascinating night of boxing with two other huge fights already confirmed on the undercard. Nicky Cook's reputation grows with each fight and in this fascinating bout he defends his WBO super-featherweight championship against the hard-hitting Roman Martinez. After winning the title against Alex Arthur last September, Cook will be hoping for an impressive first defense against the tough Puerto Rican. However early indications are that Martinez is the favourite at 4/7 with Stan James whereas Cook Faces tough odds of 5/4, again with Stan James.

Another British star, Enzo Maccarinelli, will also be appearing on the bill. The Welshman will be in action against the Mexican Ola Afolabi for the Interim WBO World Cruiserweight title. Stan James have Enzo as the huge favourite at odds on 1/10, whilst Ola Afolabi looks destined to struggle at odds of 5/1 again with Stan James.

Along with two intriguing undercard fights Amir Khan V Marco Antonio Barrera will undoubtedly be the highlight of many British boxing fans year. With such a close fight predicted between Khan and Barrera you can get great value for methods of victory betting. Barrera to win by KO is 7/2 with Ladbrokes; he’s also 3/1 with Boylesports to win with Boylesports. Meanwhile Amir Khan’s a value bet 7/4 to win by points, however if you ask me I’d have to go for Khan to make Barrera his 16th KO victim at odds of 3/1 with Ladbrokes.

Amir Khan should be praised for taking on tough opponents like Barrera (and before him Fagan), you feel that for Khan to take the first steps to becoming a true boxing legend he has to not only beat Barrera but continue fighting opponents he is equally matched with. Evenly matched fights are what every boxing fan wants and if this fight goes the distance as Ladbrokes are predicting at 8/13 it could be an absolute classic.