Sillakh: Andre Ward would easily beat Lucian Bute

By Boxing News - 01/02/2012 - Comments

Image: Sillakh: Andre Ward would easily beat Lucian ButeBy Scott Gilfoid: Undefeated light heavyweight contender Ismayl Sillakh (17-0, 14 KO’s) thinks WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (25-0, 13 KO’s) would have no problems beating International Boxing Federation (IBF) super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (29-0, 24 KO’s) if and when they end up fighting in 2012 or 2013. Sillakh, 26, simply thinks Ward would be too good for the 31-year-old Bute to deal with.

Sillakh told eastsideboxing.com’s On the Ropes Boxing Radio program “When I sparred with him [Ward], he is good. He’s very good, fast, very smart boxer, so if he comes to the light heavyweight division it’s good opposition. He’s good. And I think if Ward fights Lucian Bute, he will beat him easy because he’s too strong.”

Sillakh forgets to add that Ward is too talented for Bute. That’s the most important reason he’d beat Bute. Ward is not only faster, but a lot better fighter in almost every facet of his game. Bute does have better power, but he wouldn’t hurt Ward with anything. Bute has become too reliant on his uppercut to win his fights. He’s like a kid that discovers a new toy and that’s all he wants to play with. If you look at Bute’s fights in the past year or so, you see him throwing the uppercut over and over again. You can literally predict when he’s going to throw that punch and he’s become the Donavan Razor Ruddock of the super middleweight division with his smash uppercut punch. Ward will wait on Bute for when he’s loading up to throw that uppercut and will tag him with a right hand when he’s in the process of throwing it.

Bute has done a great job against the soft opposition that the IBF has had ranked while he’s held the IBF belt, but all that soft matchmaking his done arguably stunted Bute’s career development. Sure, he’s made money as the IBF champion, but when he’s forced to fight Ward, Andre Dirrell or his brother Anthony Dirrell, Bute will be in bad shape and will get stopped. I don’t see even a late count helping Bute in that case, because when he gets up, he’ll got knocked right back down again.

Sillakh would also lose to Ward, so he doesn’t exactly have room to talk. Sillakh is slow and not all that impressive. He fights a lot like Bute with his hit and run style of fighting and I think he’d get dominated on the inside by Ward.



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