IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (23-0, 18 KOs) got his win over Librado Andrade (27-2, 21 KOs) all right, but in the manner he gained it, I’m afraid to say that only his most diehard supporters are see it as an actual victory rather than what it appeared to be – a 12th round TKO loss. For those who may not have seen the fight and are not clear on what this is all about, let me enlighten you on the details of the bout. Bute, 28, was making his 2nd defense of his IBF title, fighting in front of his home audience in Montreal, Canada, and making a huge step up from the mostly soft opposition he had fought in his career.

He looked good early on, but began tiring by the 8th due to all of the running he was doing in the fight. He clinched often in every round, receiving no warnings from the referee. Nor Bute receive warnings for twice grabbing Andrade’s leg while he was attacking him and picking it up off the ground in a kind of wrestling move. I’ve personally never seen a fighter do that before to try and stop an attack, but it certainly should have led to a warning to Bute by the referee. It didn’t. In the 10th round, Bute dropped Andrade after getting his feet tangled with him. The referee, however, somehow missed seeing the tangle of feet and called it a knockdown, even though it seemed pretty clear that both of their feet got tangled, causing Andrade to fall when he was hit with a soft left hand from Bute.

After the knockdown, however, Andrade came after Bute with a ferocious intensity, firing on him with a lot of power and backing him up. The referee how began to shadow Andrade’s movements, and actually stepped in and pulling him off of Bute when he was attacking him with punches on the inside, giving Bute a reprieve from Andrade’s fierce attacks. Bute looked tired, but he also looked hurt from the punches he was now getting hit with. For most of the fight, he had ran around the ring, staying on the outside and pot shotting Andrade without getting hit.

However, like in the Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito fight, when Cotto got tired and could no longer keep running from Margarito, he was unable to handle his punches and was quickly hurt and taken out. This seemed to be happening in the same manner in the Bute-Andrade fight last Saturday, except that the referee appeared to be not allowing Andrade to get in his shots at close range in the 10th. At the same time, Bute stepped up the level of his clinching, grabbing Andrade continuously to try and keep him from attacking.

This should have led to a warning, and then points being taken from Bute. It didn’t. In the 11th round, Andrade hurt Bute with a quick left hand, causing Bute to stagger back and try to clinch for all he was worth. While Andrade was going after him to try and finish the job, once again the referee moved in and halted the action, and gave Andrade a warning for who knows what. The warning took several seconds, allowing Bute time to recover. For the remainder of the round, Bute ran around the ring, staying away from Andrade.

In the 12th round, Bute continued with his clinching, and doing a good job of stalling out the clock. It wasn’t entertaining boxing, mind you, but Bute was winning the only way he could at that point. His chin didn’t appear good enough, now that his legs were gone, to take much punishment from Andrade without getting hurt and possibly going down. Doing whatever he could to try and win, Bute clinched for all he was worth. Andrade, however, having no other options available to him, nailed Bute with two hard right hands while being clinched.

Unfortunately for Bute, his chin proved to be so weak, he couldn’t even handle those shots and was staggered by them. After the two fighters separated, Andrade went after Bute, who fled across the ring, staggering as he went like a drunk, coming to a rest against the ropes. When he came to the ropes, Bute hung there for a second, like a damaged butterfly waiting for a big spider to put him out of his misery. Andrade then came over and tagged him with a big right hand and dropped him.

The referee, instead of focusing on the stricken Bute, who was lying on the canvas looking to be completely out of it, turned his attention on Andrade and told him to go to the neutral corner. After that, the referee started to count, but instead of finishing the count, which had gotten up to six, he wheeled around for some bizarre reason and looked back at Andrade – I suppose, to make sure he was still in the neutral corner. I can’t say I ever saw a referee do that before, and it seemed like he trying to buy more time for Bute, who appeared badly hurt and didn’t look like he was going to beat the 10 count.

Instead of continuing the count, the referee walked to the center of the ring and told Andrade to get back to the neutral corner. At the time, Andrade had strayed a few feet from the neutral corner while the referee was giving the count to Bute, but he seemed to have done it because he thought the fight was going to be stopped given Bute’s serious condition. However, by walking to the center of the ring and focusing his attention on Andrade, the referee ended up giving Bute even more time to recover and make it to his feet.

Once the warning was finished, the referee walked back to Bute, who had made it to his feet by this, and began giving him a standing eight count. Bute was on his feet, that was for sure, but he was in no condition to continue fighting and he could stand without leaning against the ropes. Many referees around the world, if dealing with a hurt fighter, they ask them to stand up on their own – without them leaning on the ropes – and then ask the fighter to walk towards them a couple of feet to judge how hurt they are.

If the referee in this case did this, Bute didn’t comply because he continued leaning against the ropes until the referee finished his standing eight count. The fight clock ran out after the standing eight count was given, allowing Bute to escape with a win. If the referee had asked Bute to walk towards him, he would have discovered that Bute was incapable of walking on his own without staggering and almost falling, which is exactly what he did after the fight ended.

In the end, Bute may have gotten the win, but his victory is badly tarnished because of the odd way the fight ended. Some boxing fans may see it as a case of him only having to stand up, wait out the standing eight count to win the fight, but the fact that the count was delayed due to the referee spending a great deal of attention to Andrade, and then with the referee not making Bute stand up and walk towards him, makes it seem as if the wrong fighter was given the victory in the end.

One would hope that Bute, after seeing the fight again and listening to the huge controversy that it’s created, will give Andrade a rematch. Don’t bet on it. As of now, there are rumors that Bute is already looking at another fight, a non mandatory bout against Mads Larsen, rather than fighting Andrade again.