By Tim Williams: Undefeated IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (22-0, 18 KOs) will be going up his toughest test to date against Librado Andrade (27-1, 21 KOs) on October 24th at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The southpaw Bute, 28, is coming off an impressive 10th round TKO win over former WBA middleweight champion William Joppy in February. Bute controlled the fight the entire way, beautifully outmaneuvering Joppy, hitting him with jabs and straight lefts, rarely getting hit by the former middleweight champion.
Bute’s next opponent, Andrade, 30, defeated Robert Stieglitz by an 8th round TKO in March. Andrade never stopped punching, looking like a bigger version of Antonio Margarito as he continuously poured in punches on Stieglitz, who fought back well at times with harder shots. However, Andrade never let up on his withering fire, hitting Stieglitz from all angles and bloodying his nose. In the 8th round, Andrade hit Stieglitz with an avalanche of unanswered punches, leading to the referee jumping in and halting the fight. This was Andrade’s second impressive performance after being soundly beaten by Mikkel Kessler in a failed title attempt against the WBA/WBC super middleweight champion. Andrade’s constant outpour of punches mostly missed against Kessler, who moved constantly on the outside, not presenting a stationary target and jabbing him constantly to the head.
Andrade would eventually absorb a great deal of punishment against Kessler, showing a great chin if nothing else. His stubborn persistence to never yield, made Kessler work extremely hard in winning the fight, yet he appeared to easily win every round against Andrade. Although Andrade rebounded from the defeat with impressive wins over Ted Muller and Yusaf Mack in 2007, Andrade’s high pressure style of fighting remains unchanged since his defeat. The problem is, Andrade’s defense is still very porous making him vulnerable to boxer/punchers like Bute.
Bute, originally from Romania and now living in Canada, won the IBF title with a 11th round TKO over Colombian Alejandro Berrio in October 2007. Bute showed excellent movement all night long, preventing the harder punching Berrio to get off more than one punch at a time before Bute would skitter away. Nevertheless, it was a tough fight for Bute, who had a huge swelling under his right eye from the many right hands that Berrio landed in the fight. In the 11th round, Bute landed three consecutive left hands while Berrio was trapped on the ropes, totally defenseless, leading to the fight being halted by the referee with Berrio out on his feet.
Andrade will probably be at a distinct disadvantage against Bute on October 24th, mainly because Bute’s style of fighting is very similar to Kessler. While Bute isn’t quite as good as Kessler in terms of movement, speed or overall boxing ability, he comes close enough to give Andrade a lot of problems. Andrade tends to come forward in a straight line, and fights at the same pace all night long. His lateral movement is poor, as is his jabbing ability and defense. So what his chances boil down essentially is whether or not Andrade can cut off the ring enough to force Bute to fight extended battles that would most likely favor Andrade.
If Andrade is unable to cut off the ring on Bute often enough, then this will be an easy win for Bute, because he moves much better than Andrade, and is capable of moving all fight long if he has to. Bute rarely presents himself as a solid target, and often retreats when his opponents come at him. The way around that is for Andrade to time Bute’s retreat path and intercept him at those points as often as he can. Bute likes to retreat backwards at times while firing off right hooks as he moves. It would seem logical that Andrade needs to come at him hard with a jab while timing the retreat path that Bute will scamper to avoid Andrade.