Bute stops Di Luisa; Eleider Alvarez defeats Isidro Ranoni Prieto

By Boxing News - 08/15/2015 - Comments

bute555By Jim Dower: Making his first appearance in 19 months, 35-year-old former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (32-2, 25 KOs) was victorious on Saturday night in stopping little known 2nd tier fighter Andrea Di Luisa (17-3, 13 KOs) in the 4th round in a scheduled 10 round bout on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC Sports Network from the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.

Bute knocked Di Luisa down with a left to the head. After Di Luisa got back to his feet, Bute nailed him with a flurry of shots causing Di Luisa’s corner to throw in the towel.

The negative thing for Bute was he was hurt by a left hand from the light hitting Di Luisa in the 4th round. Bute backed off and was clearly hurt from the left from Di Luisa. However, Di Luisa failed to recognize that he had Bute hurt. The fact that Bute was hurt by a light hitting fighter like Di Luisa doesn’t bode well for his future. It appears that Bute still hasn’t recovered fully from the knockout he suffered three years ago at the hands of Carl Froch.

Bute looked slightly slower on his feet than he was the last time he fought in January of 2014 when he lost to Jean Pascal. However, Bute’s punching power was still very much there, as we saw with his left hands to the body and lefts to the head. Bute showed good technique in landing double lefts to the head and body. He had the perfect guy in front of him to look good against, as Di Luisa was standing stationary directly in front of him all night long, and not using head movement. Di Luisa didn’t have much hand speed or punching power. It was the perfect opponent for Bute to look good against.

“I’m back. I’m happy,” Bute said after the fight.

For Bute to go anywhere in the super middleweight or light heavyweight divisions, he’s going to need to be able to take a punch without getting hurt like we saw tonight. Had this been someone like George Groves, Badou Jack, Arthur Abraham or James DeGale, I don’t think Bute would have made it out of the 4th round. I’m not sure that the 35-year-old Bute would beat any of the top fighters at 168 or 175. They all would all be shooting for Bute’s chin, and sooner or later they would likely get to him to knock him out like Froch did.

It’s too bad Bute can’t fight at 160 because he might have a chance to do something in that division, because his power would be much more formidable. At super middleweight, they hit too hard and I don’t think Bute can take that kind of power any longer.

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Undefeated No.3 WBC 175lb contender Eleider Alvarez (18-0, 10 KOs) defeated #6 WBO, #14 WBC fringe contender Isidro Ranoni Prieto (24-1-3, 20 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision.

Alvarez, 31, was hurt in the 1st, 3rd and 6th rounds by big right hands from Prieto. However, Prieto appeared to punch himself out while going for the knockout in the 6th, and never caught his second wind. Alvarez was then able to win the remaining rounds by jabbing, pot shotting and doing a lot of clinching.

The final judges’ scores were 117-111, 117-111, and 117-111.

What we learned tonight is that Alvarez doesn’t have much of a chin, and he can’t stay in the pocket very long. He has to clinch constantly to nullify his opponent’s offense, and he backs up at the slightest hint of danger. Based on this performance, I wouldn’t give Alvarez any chance at all of beating the best contenders in the light heavyweight division like Artur Beterbiev, Andrzej Fonfara, Jean Pascal, Yunieski Gonzalez and Sullivan Barrera. It goes without saying that Alvarez wouldn’t be able to hang with champions Adonis Stevenson, Juergen Braehmer and Sergey Kovalev.

The World Boxing Council needs to get their ratings straightened out because there’s no way Eleider Alvarez should be ranked above guys like Beterbiev, Pascal, Edwin Rodriguez or Nathan Cleverly. I rate all of those fighters as much better than Alvarez. Beterbiev, Pascal and Rodriguez would clearly KO Alvarez, and Cleverly would likely beat him by a lopsided decision. Alvarez’s promoter needs to start matching him tough because he’s not going anywhere and doesn’t seem to be improving with the weak match-making that’s being done for him.



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