Are Bute’s promoters scouting out the graveyards for his next opponent?

By Boxing News - 01/30/2012 - Comments

Image: Are Bute’s promoters scouting out the graveyards for his next opponent?By Scott Gilfoid: I can only imagine how bad IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute’s next challenger will be. The only guy that’s worthy of fighting him is Andre Dirrell or his brother Anthony Dirrell.

SHOWTIME wants Dirrell as Bute’s opponent, but Bute’s promoters at InterBox don’t want any part of facing the lightning quick and incredibly talented Dirrell. I guess Dirrell is seen as too close to Ward in talent and looks like they don’t want to deal with that kind of fighter. I guess Bute’s promoters will combing the local graveyards to try and dig up an opponent to cart out to Montreal to sell it to the Canadian fans.

It doesn’t seem to matter who Bute faces; the Canadian fans flock to see him beating one stiff after another. Dirrell would be the first real opponent that Bute will have faced in his entire career, and it’s not exactly surprising that they’re not interested in him. Carl Froch won’t fight Bute, and the other top super middleweights are already busy.

There are only the Dirrell brothers remaining if you’re looking for talent to put Bute in with. Of course, if Bute’s promoters are looking for more fodder to shovel in there with him, then he’ll have no problems finding another opponent. I hear they’re thinking about trotting Librado Andrade, #6 IBF, out there for a third fight with Bute. #4 IBF contender Don George is already facing #5 Edwin Rodriguez on March 17th, and the winner of that bout won’t be available until June or July at the earliest. Somehow I don’t think Bute will be too keen on wasting half the year waiting to take on one of those guys. It’s obviously going to be Rodriguez because he’s a lot better fighter in my estimation and will make George look bad.

Bute fought 42-year-old Glen Johnson in his last fight in November 2011, winning a 12 round decision and not looking that great. That was arguably Bute’s best opponent of his nine-year pro career. In Bute’s fight before that, he defeated 38-year-old Jean Paul Mendy by a 4th round TKO. Mendy was the guy that got knocked out in the 1st round by Sakio Bika in his fight before that, but the referee gave him a disqualification win after Bika tagged Mendy when he was flat on his back on the canvas. Great choice of an opponent for Bute, eh? The fight before that was Brian Magee and the one before that was Jesse Brinkley. There has just been no quality at all in Bute’s opposition.

My prediction is that Bute’s promoters will pick out Librado Andrade, 33, for Bute’s next fight. Andrade has lost three out of his last five fights and it’s incredible that he’s still ranked at #6 by the IBF. With all those losses, Andrade shouldn’t even be ranked in the top 15. He was beaten by Aaron Pryor Jr. last yer by a 10 round decision last May. Bute stopped in the 4th round in their rematch in November 2009. Andrade lost a 12 round decision to Bute in 2008 in the infamous delayed count fight where Bute was knocked down in the 12th and the referee spent a good deal of time focusing on telling Andrade to go to the neutral corner instead of giving Bute a count. Bute has now beaten Andrade twice. I don’t see the point in fighting him again, do you?

I just hope SHOWTIME doesn’t agree to televise Bute’s next fight if he doesn’t fight Dirrell and instead decides to fight Andrade again. American’s done need to see that kind of slop on SHOWTIME.



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