Brian Magee named as the likely next opponent for Lucian Bute – News
December 19th, 2010
By Peter Brayshaw: British super middleweight champion James De Gale (9-0, 7 KO’s) is now unable to face European Boxing Union champion Brian Magee (34-3-1, 24 KO’s). It will be shortly confirmed that Magee will face Lucian Bute (27-0, 22 KO’s) in March for Bute’s IBF super middleweight title. Brian Magee has earned his world title shot on the back of a ten fight winning streak during which he captured the British light-heavyweight title, British super middleweight title and the European super middleweight title. He was also recently named as a mandatory challenger to WBA champion, Dimitry Sartison.
Brian Magee won the IBO super middleweight title in 2001 and on his ninth defence he suffered his first loss as a professional by a close but unanimous decision to former WBC title holder Robin Reid (39-6-1, 27 KO’s). The following year in July 2005, he suffered his second loss when he fought unbeaten opponent, Vitaliy Tsypko (22-3, 12 KO’s). Tsypko was 17-0 at the time and in another close fight Magee lost by split decision. Even after these two losses Magee was still considered a good fighter, the guy had never been stopped and narrow decisions had stained his record. In 2007 he got the chance to prove his worth against the highly regarded Carl ‘The Cobra’ Froch (27-1, 20KO’s). Froch was British and Commonwealth champion and his record was 18-0 when the two met. Froch was simply too much for Magee to handle and in retrospect we can understand why. Magee got caught with a wicked uppercut in the opening round and went down. He brushed himself off and went after Froch but the power and strength of the future 2-time world champion eventually wore him down. Magee was constantly holding and after a hard ten rounds Froch landed another devastating uppercut in round 11 and the fight was over. Four years, ten months and ten victories later Magee is again up against one of the very best of his era.
Lucian Bute is arguably the best active fighter at 168 and the most highly rated super middleweight since Joe Calzaghe. Many would dispute this due to the level of opposition compared to the likes of Ward and Froch, his toughest assignments being Andrade and Bika. Even though this is true I find it difficult to dispute his No.1 status. Bute is quick and he knocks guys out, added to that his movement and array of punches he is the one to beat. I would have preferred to see him facing someone like Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) or even Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KO’s) but unfortunately Dirrell is still recovering from neurological problems and Pavlik is nowhere to be found. If Kelly Pavlik still has world title aspirations then having a go at Bute would have surely been the perfect opportunity and Bute would of jumped at the chance.
The fight will be announced officially on Monday. It will be Lucian Bute v Brian Magee for the IBF super middleweight title on March 19th. It will be Bute’s seventh title defence and another chance to see one of the best active boxers in the world today.
Tags: 23 Responses to “Brian Magee named as the likely next opponent for Lucian Bute – News”
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The flag colors of Brian Magee changes nothing, Lucian Bute will destroy him.
Right lets get this nationality cleared up..
Their are four countries in the UK/Britsh Isles, Scotland, England, Wales (Mainland Britain) and Northern Ireland.
Brian Magee is from Lisburn in Northern Ireland which is temporarily under British Rule, Britain ruled the whole of ireland until 1922 but now only rule 6 counties in Northern Ireland, the republic of Ireland is free from british rule.
After the 1998 good Friday agreement people living in Northern Ireland have the right to hold both a British and Irish Passport, the vast majority of Catholics in Northern Ireland would consider themselves Irish and likewise most protestants prefer Bitish rule. (Brian be fighting for Ireland!!)
Brian will be well and truly capable of giving Bute a run for his money and fully deserving of a world title fight, unbeaten in 5 years!! He has great support back here in Belfast and the whole of Ireland and Britain…. Come on Brian take the belt you deserve.
Magee can beat Bute but he has to work hard on it. If he’s gonna fight like with Larsen, I give him 50% chances to win the IBF title.
Go Magee!
Brian Magee being born in northern ireland. He was an Irish Amateur Champion many times over and represented ireland at world level. I Know him personally and he is going to give buté and all the canadians in the building a big shock, walking out with that belt… ill b wearin a big smile on my face cheerin louder than anyone!! Brian magee abú
Bute is taking the fights he can’t get right now, that’s all. Name somebody please. Pascal got bigger problems right now. He has 2 fights(rematch) before even thinking about Bute. Dawson and Hopkins. The rest of good boxers are stuck in the super6, injured or lost. So until then, I guess he’s fighting who ever deserve a title shot. Blame showtime…not Bute.
This fighter is fighting B fighters in his last couple bouts.Whats up with that.Why are they not demanding a real challenger. The fans like the upper hand advantage I guess.,And he is making good money.
Brian Magee is a catholic and he flys the irish flag he fights for ireland not britain
they need to go ahead and set up the Pascal fight while the money is there before both these dudes lose
Magee is a name of Scottish decent I think and hails from Northern Ireland, this would likely make him Protestant which means he would identify as being British. It’s a long story, and I can’t be bothered to explain, if you don’t know what I’m talking about it’s not something you’re going to understand with a brief glimpse on wikipedia.
All that aside, Bute’s a cherry picking phoney, nobody cares how quickly he beat a washed up stepping stone like Miranda or Andrade, the real action is taking place elsewhere and he didn’t want a bar of it.
Bute’s not great but he’s a southpaw which makes him hard work for any orthodox fighter. Magee’s a tough brawler but he’s not much for brains. I don’t think he’s dynamic or fast enough to overcome Bute’s southpaw style. Isn’t Degale a southpaw too? I don’t like him instinctively, though I’ve never watched one of his fights. Maybe he’ll give Bute some trouble in a year or two. I can see Bute going up to light-heavy to take a shot at Pascal. He doesn’t want a part of a serious supermiddleweight anymore.
Dude, Bute is #1 … no one KO ed Andrade in the 4th round, no one KO ed Miranda in the 3rd round -_– Zuniga 2…. Did u see the fight Bika vs Ward….. Bute did better with Bika in 2007 than Ward did few weeks ago -_– BUTE is going to KO all the super six boxers trust me !! I know him, he s hungry like a lion.
JohnDoe – I hate correcting people on here but I have to tell you that Brian Magee hails from Northern Ireland and that part of Ireland is still governed by Great Britain, so he is Irish and British as well. The remainder of Ireland is independent and is governed from Dublin. I can ssure you that there are many Protestants in Northern ireland who wish to remain British. To confuse the issue even further I should say that someone who is born in Scotland is first and foremost Scottish but he is also British and someone from England is English and British. You also forgot the good old Welsh and they are British as well.
Back to Magee, if you look in the RING magazine ratings you will see that he is listed as being from ‘Northern Ireland’.
“johndoe says:
December 19, 2010 at 12:59 pm
only people from England are British.”
people from england are english. britain is the name of the island & as such people from england, wales & scotland are british.
Bute, the David Haye of super middleweights! At least Haye is English so he has an excuse (besides being afraid of the brothers, which he most definitely is) to fight British level fighters. Not a knock on British fighters, but the great Brits, like the greats of any country, actually fight world class opposition. Pascal, Hopkins, Dirrell, Ward, Dawson and Froch would all beat Bute. Those six have actually faced A-level opposition, something Bute has never done. I see Bute facing the winner of the Super Six and losing; mainly because he has absolutely no experience against a top opponent. When you are scared to fight the best, you can’t get any better. Fighting bum after bum does nothing to improve a fighter, it actually probably hurts one when they are finally in a real battle.
Magee is not British! He is Irish! England, a.k.a. Britian and Ireland are SEPERATE countries. It is true they are both on the same island, the gigantic island known as the United Kingdom, but Ireland won it’s freedom a while ago. There is a big difference between England and The United Kingdom. The U.K. consists of England, Ireland, and Scotland all three their own autonomous countries, so while they are all from the U.K. only people from England are British.
I can’t beieve that Bute is even going risk taking on a reasonable fighter like Magee as he normally prefers ‘C’ class fighters like Jesse Brinkley. How does he hold the number one rating when he has never fought the likes of Pavlik, Ward, Froch, Abraham, Kessler etc.?
Librado Andrade had him out on his feet in the 12th round and the referee gave Bute half a minute to recover which then meant that Andrade had no time to go for him before the bell. Okay so he stopped Andrade in the return but as the Mexican has been beaten by just about every other top rated boxer in the division, it was no real credit to Bute. I wish these periodicals that rate him as number one would tell us how they reached their conclusions because it mystifies me. Very, VERY strange indeed!!
jamie65
If Magee is from Northern Ireland (which he is) then that makes him British
i dont rate magee,but his only loss in his last 13 fights was against the cobra.since then he as won the british,and EBU titles.gone and defended the EBU.that gives him a high ranking and a shot at world title.as for degale he should win a lonsdale belt outrite in 2011,by 2012 the EBU then onto the world.
magee is irish not british >
In 2008 Magee was still fighting journeymen. This guy is not a credible opponent in my opinion.
Brian Magee has been on the brink of a world championship bout for years. I don’t see him beating Bute though.
Froch would beat bute!! Hope Magee wins another british champ come on Brian.
Why is magee taking this wen he’s mandatory for the WBA. Sartison would be a lot easier than bute. Magee may even of beat sartison