By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF super middleweight title holder Lucian Bute (31-2, 24 KOs) will be facing former Tony Bellew victim Roberto Feliciano Bolonti (35-3, 24 KOs) on December 6th at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.
This is an interesting fight because Bute should be fighting better opposition than this you would think, but then again his career has gone downhill ever since he was stopped in the 5th round by WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch in their fight two years ago in May of 2012.
Bute was recently beaten by Jean Pascal by a lopsided decision in a fight where Bute looked timid and unable to pull the trigger on his punches.
“I wanted to face a quality opponent who is coming to fight. Bolonti is a persistent, come-forward boxer who is difficult to rattle. This is exactly what I need, and exactly what I will train to counter,” Bute said.
Bute is fight at light heavyweight now, and I’m not too sure that is anything he can really do in this weight class. The division is loaded with talent right now, and Bute is too up there in age for him to be able to improve enough to beat the likes of Adonis Stevenson, Artur Beterbiev, Sergey Kovalev and Jean Pascal. Those guys are going to be around likely for the remainder of Bute’s career, and he’s not going to be able to wait them out until they get old for him to be able to pick up a big win or a strap.
Really, the only title that Bute has any chance of winning is the WBA 175lb belt held by Jurgen Braehmer. That’s clearly the weak link among the light heavyweight champions at the moment, but Bute will likely need to work his way into a mandatory spot before Braehmer’s German handlers will elect to let him fight Bute.
I don’t see them agreeing to fight him as a voluntary because there are too many easy marks for Braehmer to fight in the division for him to milk his WBA strap. It doesn’t matter that Bute looks to be over-the-hill, there are still far easier title-milking fights for Braehmer to fight rather than getting in the ring with Bute.
Bute would be better off fighting at super middleweight because at least in that weight class he would have a chance of making something happen once the aging 37-year-old Froch retires. Bute could also go after WBO 168lb champion Arthur Abraham, as he looked terrible last Saturday night in defeating Paul Smith.
While I still had Abraham beating Smith by at least 10 rounds, Abraham was still horrible in the fight and very beatable for someone like Bute if he could somehow get a fight against him, which I highly doubt. Abraham’s German based promoters at Sauerland likely wouldn’t agree to let Abraham fight Bute, because they’re stuck on the cyclic fights against Robert Stieglitz. Bute would have to become the WBO mandatory because he’s get a crack at Abraham, and that could take years for that to happen, if ever.
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