By Erik Schmidt: A year after their controversial fight, IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (24-0, 19 KO’s) will finally be giving a much needed rematch to Librado Andrade (28-2, 21 KO’s) on November 28th, in Quebec, Canada. Bute and Adrade fought last year in October, with Bute getting knocked down in the 12th round by Andrade and ended up winning the fight on a long count by referee Marlon Wright.
It appeared that Bute wouldn’t have been able to beat the count had it not been for Wright giving extra time for Bute to get up off the canvas by turning his attention to Andrade, directing him to go to the neutral corner. Even if Bute did beat the count, he so badly hurt that he couldn’t stand on his two feet and needed to lean back against the ropes after he got up.
The outcome should have arguably been overturned by the IBF, or at the least forced an immediate rematch. However, Bute was given credit for the victory and moved on, fighting Fulgencio Zuniga in March 2009, who Bute easily defeated by a 4th round TKO.
In the meantime, Andrade was forced to start over again by fighting Vitali Tsypko in a IBF super middleweight title eliminator bout in April. Andrade easily won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, which again put him in place as Bute’s mandatory challenger.
This time, the fight likely won’t have Wright as the referee, although the fight will still be held in Canada. Hopefully, there’s no controversy this time because the last fight left a bad taste in the mouths of many boxing fans. The fight will be shown on HBO’s Boxing After Dark.
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Wladimir Klitschko to Fight Eddie Chambers Next
IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (53-3, 47 KO’s) will reportedly be facing American Eddie Chambers (35-1, 18 KO’s) next, possibly on December 12th. Chambers, 27, is Klitschko’s number #1 challenger for the WBO, beating Samuel Peter and Alexander Dimitrenko in his last two fights. Wladimir had considering whether he should fight Alexander Povetkin, his IBF number #1 challenger, whom has been waiting around since last year for an opportunity to fight Klitschko.
However, Povetkin apparently needs more time before he’ll be ready for a fight of this magnitude, which gives the green light for Chambers to move forward and take the fight. Chambers is about as prepared as he could ever hope to be. He defeated the Klitschko clone, the 6’7” Dimitrenko by a 12 round decision in his last fight in July, and did well against Dimitrenko’s Eastern European fighting style.
Chambers appeared to quickly solve the style, realizing that if he got in close to Dimitrenko, he could batter with blistering combinations and not have to worry about Dimitrenko’s power shots. This is likely what Chambers will try against Klitschko. However, more than a few fighters have tried using that strategy against Wladimir, and it usually fails because the big Ukrainian either backs away quickly while firing shots or he grabs his opponents in a clinch, not letting them get more than a shot or two off.
Wladimir punches much harder than Dimitrenko, has a better jab and is a quicker with his shots. Indeed, Dimitrenko is like a poor copy of the younger Klitschko brothers. Chambers will have to show more than he did in the Dimitrenko fight if he wants to win. It’s unlikely that Chambers can win by a knockout, because he doesn’t have much power. This means he’s going to have to try and outwork Wladimir somehow. I can’t see that happening, but then again I never thought Chambers would beat Samuel Peter and Dimitrenko.
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