Bute-Pascal negotiations running smoothly for May 25th fight

By Boxing News - 03/12/2013 - Comments

bute344By Scott Gilfoid: The negotiations for the Canadian mega-fight between former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) and former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (27-2, 16 KO’s) are running smoothly for the scheduled bout between the two Canadians on May 25th at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

According to Canadian news site lapresse.ca, “all obstacles have been cleared.”

This is a fight where both guys can’t afford to lose. Pascal was pretty badly exposed in his losses to Bernard Hopkins and Carl Froch, and it’s hard to imagine him being able to come back from a loss to Bute if that happens. As for Bute, he was recently knocked out in the 5th round by Froch last year in May, and he definitely can’t afford another loss.

Bute came back from that defeat to beat little known fringe contender Denis Grachev by a 12 round unanimous decision last November, but Bute didn’t look good until the 12th round. The old confidence just wasn’t there for Bute for some reason.

It seems like a bad idea for Bute to rush back into a tough fight like this one against Pascal because he doesn’t have the hand speed that Pascal has going for him, and mostly likely he’s going to get hit a lot in this fight. If Bute’s chin isn’t up to snuff, he’s going get knocked out.

Pascal looked mediocre in his last fight against Aleksy Kuziemski in winning a 10 round unanimous decision. Pascal injured his left shoulder early in the fight and had to beat Kuziemski using just his right hand the rest of the way. However, even before the injury occurred, Pascal looked like a limited fighter with all the problems that he had showed in his two bouts against Hopkins.

If Bute can take Pascal’s explosive combinations and occasional pot shots, he should win this fight. However, he’s going to have to keep the action on the outside and focus on boxing him if he wants to avoid getting knocked out again.

Bute would have been better off facing Sakio Bika, and then battling WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward rather than taking on Pascal. I think this is a stupid fight for Bute because the chances are high things will go badly for him against Pascal.



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