(Photo credit: InterBox) By Jeff Aranow: Former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (32-3, 25 KOs) sees himself winning his upcoming April 30 fight against WBC 168lb champion Badou Jack (20-1-1, 12 KOs) at the DC Armory in Washington, DC. The Jack vs. Bute fight will be televised on Showtime Championship Boxing.
The 36-year-old Bute has seen some video of Badou training and he was not impressed. Bute feels that his experience and punching power will be enough for him to get past the 32-year-old Jack to become a world champion once again.
Bute suspects that Badou is looking past him towards a much hoped for fight against IBF 168lb champion James DeGale later on in the year. Bute plans on beating the distracted Badou and taking his title.
Bute lost his last fight against DeGale last November in losing a 12 round decision in Quebec, Canada. However, Bute gave DeGale all he could handle in the fight and landed the harder and cleaner landing shots throughout the fight. DeGale won based on his better work in the first half of the contest. Bute came alive in the last four rounds and was dominating the action at the end of the fight in the 12th.
Despite losing the fight, Bute came out of the fight with a new sense of confidence knowing that he could compete with one of the best fighters in the super middleweight division. Bute came into that fight with his confidence not high due to his one-sided 12 round decision loss to Jean Pascal in 2014, and his 5th round knockout loss to Carl Froch in May 2012.
“The pressure won’t be on me because I’ll be on his turf, in Washington. He is the favorite because he’s the champion, but I’m confident and I’m able! We looked at some video of him,” said Bute. “He’s not exceptional and he makes mistakes. I have experience. This will be my 13th world championship fight. My experience and my speed will make the difference.”
Badou is far from exceptional. Before winning the WBC 168lb belt last year with an upset 12 round decision win over the vulnerable Anthony Dirrell in April of 2015, Badou was seen largely as a bottom fringe contender and not someone that was a major player in the 168lb division.
Badou then followed up his win over Dirrell with a close 12 round split decision victory over former two-time world title challenger George Groves last September. Groves would have won that fight if he hadn’t tired after the first six rounds. Badou was there to be beaten if Groves had the stamina to fight hard for 12 rounds instead of just six.
“My confidence level wasn’t at 100 percent before I fought James DeGale, but now it’s all back after performing the way I did against him,” said Bute.
Bute held the IBF super middleweight title from October 2007 to May 2012. That was a good five-year run for Bute, and he was very hard to beat during those years. Carl Froch finally stopped Bute’s run with a stoppage win over him in Nottingham, UK.
Bute’s only win in the last four years has come against Andrea Di Luisa in August of 2015. Bute has currently lost two out of his last three fights and three out of his last five. That doesn’t mean he can’t beat Badou though. It does mean that Bute is going to need to fight hard to get the victory because this won’t be an easy fight for him due to Badou being in the prime of his career right now, and not wanting to give up his WBC title.
Bute still has the punching power to KO Badou like he’s done with 25 other opponents during his career. If Bute goes to the body like he used to, it could be difficult for Badou to handle his power.