By Jim Dower: International Boxing Federation super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (23-0, 18 KOs) is looking to make a voluntary defense of his title against German based challenger Mads Larsen (51-2, 38 KOs) in the coming months. As of yet, the fight hasn’t been signed nor has there been a date yet set for the fight but it appears this will be Bute’s next bout on the horizon.
It’s interesting that Bute, 28, has chosen Larsen as an option, as Larsen is ranked low at the bottom #15 spot in the IBF and it would seem that Bute could have found someone a little more worthy than him, especially given Bute’s controversial victory over Librado Andrade in October.
In that fight, which took place in Canada, Bute had dominated the majority of the fight using his excellent boxing skills to keep the high pressure Andrade from landing. Bute, from Romania and now living in Canada, stayed mostly on the move for the first 11 rounds, picking his spots to land quick combinations and then get out of range.
But in the 11th round, Andrade hurt Bute with a hard left hand to the head. Bute then started clinching Andrade. Not wanting to waste an opportunity, Andrade shook Bute off him so that he could finish him off. The referee, however, jumped in and gave Andrade a warning and ended up wasting a lot of time on the clock just when Bute was hurt and ready to go. The warning seemed totally unnecessary as Andrade was trying to keep the fight moving and wanted Bute to stop clinching. Indeed, the referee should have been the one trying to peel Bute off of Andrade because it was clear that Bute just wanted to clinch his way out of the round.
Still badly hurt and tired in the 12th, Bute was immediately hurt by two successive lefts from Andrade despite clinching him continuously. Bute then staggered across the ring and came to the rest against the ropes where he laid there like a fly got in a web, with both arms stretched out to the side as if waiting to be finished off.
Andrade then strode forward and dropped Bute with a perfect right hand to the head. The referee then did motioned for Andrade to go to the neutral corner, but instead of turning his head and starting the count on Bute, the referee remained standing there staring at Andrade, wasting valuable time.
It was several more moments before the referee started the count on the badly hurt Bute, but after finally starting to count, the referee for some odd reason turned around and focused his attention on Andrade instead of finishing his count on Bute.
The referee then walked to the middle of the ring and gave Andrade more instructions about staying in the neutral corner. By the time the referee had finished with this and walked back over to Bute, a lot of valuable time had elapsed, which as it turned out, enabled Bute to get up and beat the clock. It appeared that Bute would have been counted out if not for the extra focus that the referee had put on Andrade.
I personally have never seen a referee do something like this in a fight before, because usually when a fighter is down, the referee will motion for the other fighter to go to the neutral corner and then immediately start the count. But in this case, the referee seemed to be concentrating far too much on Andrade, so much so that the referee even turned his head around to look back at him after the referee had started the count on Bute. It was all very strange and it seemed to taint the fight for me.
Instead of giving Andrade an immediate rematch, something would seem only fair given the controversial nature of the fight, Bute appears to be opting for an easy defense against Larsen. At one time in his career, Larsen, now 35, was a good fighter, but that was five years ago. He stepped away from boxing in 2003 and took four years off, making a comeback in 2007.
The time off seems to have dulled a lot of Larsen’s once impressive skills, making him slow and more one dimensional, now almost entirely a one-armed fighter only able to punch well with his left hand. I don’t expect Larsen to be able to give Bute much of a fight and frankly, it’s disappointing that Bute would even want to fight an opponent ranked as low as Larsen.
If Bute doesn’t want to fight Andrade, then at least fight someone else nearly as good, someone like Fulgencio Zuniga, Jermain Taylor, Andre Dirrell or Allan Green. I think one or all of them could beat Bute if given the chance.
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