By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (32-2, 25 KOs) is looking forward to getting the current IBF 168lb champion James DeGale (21-1, 14 KOs) inside the ring so that he can beat him and regain his lost IBF title on November 28th at the Videotron Center in Quebec, Canada.
Bute lost his IBF title in a 5th round knockout defeat to Britain’s Carl Froch in 2012 in a fight that took place in Froch’s hometown of Nottingham, UK. Now with Bute fighting in his adopted country of Canada, he has a chance to even the score by beating a Brit to regain his long lost IBF strap.
Bute says DeGale’s IBF title will be left behind by him when he leaves Canada to go back to the UK.
Bute was the IBF super middleweight champion from 2007 to 2012. Yeah, Bute never beat anyone that I would call a good fighter, but he was still a good champion during that time frame. Bute showed that he was one of the best body punchers in the division during that five year time frame. He also showed that he was elusive and hard to hit.
Bute’s loss to Froch was more about him making a foolish mistake by backing up against the ropes and trying to fight from that vantage point. In hindsight, I’m sure Bute regrets making that mistake because he would have given Froch a lot of problems if he had stayed in the center of the ring.
“‘I am really happy to have this opportunity at this point of my career,” Bute said via skysports.com. “I lost my title in England against an English fighter [Froch] and now, I will box in Quebec against another English boxer [DeGale], for the same title I defended for five years. I am really motivated by this opportunity the regain the title I lost in 2012.”
Bute has a good chance of winning this fight against DeGale if he focuses on throwing one punch at a time like he normally does. Bute can’t make the same mistake that Andre Dirrell did in trying to throw combinations. That’s how Dirrell got knocked down. Bute must be sneaky with his shots, and not make it obvious when he’s going to load up on one of his big punches to nail DeGale.
I think Bute can win this fight if he fights well enough to win at least three of the first six rounds, because DeGale will likely fade badly in the 2nd half of the fight like he did in the Dirrell fight last May.
“The fact that the fight will take place in front of my fans in Quebec City, where I never lost, will be the factor that will make the difference,” Bute said. “I give all my respect to the champion James DeGale for accepting to travel for his first defence, but the IBF belt will stay in Quebec November 28.”
DeGale is traveling to Canada to fight Bute there because they can obviously make big bank due to Bute’s huge fan base. He’s able to sell out big arenas. Unfortunately, I don’t think DeGale enjoys the same possibility in the UK.
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