Bute is back! Froch is next

By Boxing News - 11/03/2012 - Comments

Image: Bute is back! Froch is nextBy Scott Gilfoid: Lucian Bute (31-0, 24 KO’s) showed Matrix-like skills tonight and revealed that he’s fully back from his confidence draining stoppage loss to Carl Froch last May. Bute showed tonight against Russian Denis Grachev (12-1-1, 8 KO’s) that he’s on his way to becoming a world champion once again. Bute took the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada.

The scores were a little haywire, though, with Bute getting the decision by the scores 115-113, 118-110 and 116-112. The 118-110 score was more reflective of the actual fight that took place tonight, as Bute landed the much cleaner shots in every round of the fight.

You got to give Grachev a ton of credit for being able to take Bute’s blinding fast and incredibly powerful uppercuts to the head and body. A lot of fighters wouldn’t have been able to take those kinds of power shots without being wobbled and stopped. But Grachev showed an iron chin and a really strong midsection in taking the big punches.

Bute now goes from here into his rematch against IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch next March at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Bute can win that fight no problem. He just needs to be slick the way he was with Grachev in the 12th round when Bute was unloading with one hard uppercut after another while the huge pro-Bute crowd screamed like mad in support of him. Bute did a great job of dodging all of Grachev’s big shots in that round and it was really nice to watch.

It was like I was watching Andre Dirrell in the 12th round when Bute turned into the Matrix with his defense. He was able to get out of the way of every shot that Grachev threw at him while firing back picturesque uppercuts to the head and right hooks. I was like ‘Wow’ with each shot Bute threw. That was some impressive stuff from the young talent.



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