Lucian Bute…Lost In The Mix

With all the hype surrounding the upcoming Super Six World Boxing Classic one could be forgiven for thinking that the very best of the division will be represented in this revolutionary new tournament, but one man who never made it to the party has a super showdown of his own coming up on Nov 28th and he’s aiming to show the world that Ken Hershman missed a beat by not inviting him to compete in the competition to crown an outright Super Middleweight Champion.

Lucian Bute has almost become the division’s forgotten man in world terms, but Bute can always count on his loyal fan base in his naturalized home of Quebec,Canada. Since coming over from Romania six years ago and hooking up with trainer Stéphan Larouche, Bute has developed a strong bond with the Canuck masses and his fights at the Bell Centre in Montreal can produce some of the best atmospheres in World Boxing today. With nearly 15,000 screaming French-Canadian’s cheering on their hero, Bute enjoys a rare following that could be rivaled only by the likes of a Ricky Hatton or a Manny Pacquiao.

The still undefeated IBF champion has some good wins under his belt too with victory’s over Sakio Bika, Librado Andrade, Fulgencio Zuniga and Alejandro Berrio but he is still to make the step up to face a truly elite opponent, and now finds himself in the position of playing a waiting game for the eventual winner of the Super Six. In the meantime Bute has unfinished business to attend to with his rematch against Librado Andrade, and he’ll tackle the tough Mexican once again to silence the critics who say he got lucky in their first fight by surviving Referee Marlon B. Wright’s “long count” to win a highly controversial UD.

After controlling Andrade for most of the night and while well ahead on the cards, Bute faded badly down the stretch and so nearly paid the ultimate price with Andrade finally catching up and flooring him in the sensational final round. As the referee Wright was more concerned with Andrade and getting him to a neutral corner, Bute clawed himself up and appeared to beat the count, although many observers say the count was long and Bute got the decision victory by the skin of his teeth. Challenger Andrade was furious. “He was completely out,” said Andrade. “I didn’t come out of the corner. I don’t know what Wright was talking about. It was outrageous.”

So while all eyes will be on Berlin,Nottingham and Oakland this fall, Bute and Andrade will duke it out again, this time in Quebec City, Canada, and Bute will be out to impress. He has all the skills to get past Andrade again, but questions over stamina remain and Andrade knows that his pressure nearly paid off last time. This rematch has some intriguing qualities and could very well upstage the more glamorous fights of the Super Six.

What the future holds for Bute is a little cloudy, if he does indeed get past Andrade again he must deal with the fact that the division is currently drained of future opponents. Unless Kelly Pavlik makes the jump to 168lbs. Bute has little chance of getting a big fight for quite some time. Although Allen Green is currently riding high in the IBF rankings, and while he might not be such an attractive opponent for Bute, he may just find that there’s nobody else left that’s worth fighting. Bute vs Stieglitz…? Oh brother!!!