By Scott Gilfoid: After arguably getting robbed of at least a draw in his last title fight against IBF 168lb champion James DeGale last November, former IBF champion Lucian Bute (32-3, 25 KOs) will be reloading for another title fight next month on April 30th against WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (20-1-1, 12 KOs) at a still to be determined venue.
Bute fought well enough to deserve at least a draw in his last fight against DeGale in Montreal, Canada. I had the fight scored a draw, as Bute really took charge of the out in the second half of the contest and appeared to win 4 out of the last 6 rounds.
I had Bute winning 2 of the first 6 rounds. That should have been enough for Bute to get a draw out of the fight, but with the scoring that was done in that fight, Bute ended up losing by the lopsided scores of 117-111, 117-111 and 116-112.
Those would be fine scores if they were done for another fight, but not for the DeGale-Bute fight that took place on that night. It’s really nice that Badou’s management saw fit to select Bute for the fight, because it makes things right that Bute gets another world title fight immediately after the DeGale fight without him having to work for years to earn the shot. With that said, Bute has to win this fight though. If he doesn’t, he find himself out of the loop for a long, long time.
Given Bute’s advanced age of 36, I don’t think he would have enough time on the clock to work his way back to another title shot. He might have to do something drastic like moving up to light heavyweight to get a quick title fight. That division is pretty much empty of big names, and a fighter like Bute might be able to get a world title fight without having to wait too long for it.
Bute is still trying to get back to the top after suffering an embarrassing 5th round knockout loss to Carl Froch four years ago in 2012 in a fight in Nottingham, UK. It was a winnable fight for Bute, but he made a calculated error of retreating to the ropes against Froch in the 5th round. This resulted in Froch unleashing a flurry of punches that left Bute out on his feet. The fight was subsequently halted while the referee was checking Bute over.
If Bute hadn’t made the mistake of backing up against the ropes, he might have won the fight. Froch has always done well against opponents that back up to the ropes. If Bute had studied Froch’s past fights like I have, he would have known that you don’t back up on Froch.
You move laterally like Andre Dirrell did in his fight against Froch. Dirrell created the blueprint in how to beat Froch by using movement, a hard jab and quick one-two combinations. Yeah, I know Froch won the fight, but it was a controversial win and it took place in Froch’s hometown of Nottingham, UK.
Bute’s career hasn’t been the same since his loss to Froch. Bute was beaten by Jean Pascal in 2014, and he looked timid in that fight as well as in his fight against Denis Grachevl. Bute didn’t really get his confidence back until he fought Andrea Di Luisa in 2015. Bute looked good in that fight as well as in the DeGale fight.
In hindsight, Bute’s management made a mistake of throwing him in with Grachev and Pascal in his first two fights against the Froch fight. They should have matched Bute carefully after that loss to get his confidence up. You don’t want to put a guy that has been knocked out in with two consecutive punchers the way that Bute was. It’s not surprising that he lost to Pascal and didn’t look great against Grachev.
I liked the way that Bute was able to stand in the pocket against DeGale. That was Bute at his best. I think with a few minor tweaks in the first half of the fight, he would have won. I don’t know though. With the scoring that was done in that fight, I think Bute was really up against it and might have needed a knockout to get a draw.
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