By William Mackay: Although International Boxing Federation (IBF) super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (25-0, 20 KO’s) and WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (29-0, 17 KO’s) are separated by one division, you have to wonder what would be the out if they fought now or in the near future. With only a mere seven pounds separating the two fighters, it wouldn’t be a case where either of them could make excuses for not fighting each other. For some boxing fans, they see the 29-year-old Bute as the best fighter in the super middleweight division, and in the same turn, perhaps an overwhelming about of fans see the 27-year-old Dawson as the best fighter in the light heavyweight division.
Bute, however, still hasn’t actually proved that he’s the best fighter in the super middleweight division. For him to do that, Bute will have to fight the winner of the Super Six tournament contests Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward, Mikkel Kessler, Carl Froch, Allan Green and Arthur Abraham. It’s difficult to tell who will ultimately win that tournament, but based on how the different fighters have looked thus far, it could be Ward, Froch or Abraham.
One would hope that Bute’s handlers do the right thing and try to position him for a unification bout against the winner of the Super Six tournament. But beyond that, a fight against Dawson would seem to be just as good, if not better for Bute. Dawson, 6’1”, is an inch shorter than the 6’2” Bute, However, Dawson has a long 6 ½” reach advantage over Bute, and with his much faster hands than the Romanian Bute, Dawson would have another big plus working for him in a fight against Bute.
This wouldn’t be a fight in which Bute could use his hit and run style of fighting to get in and get away from the much quicker Dawson, because Chad, being so fast with his hands, would time Bute each time the Canadian based super middleweight came at him. I think it’s fair to say that Dawson would totally bottle up Bute’s hit and run style of fighting, and would force him to try a different tactic if he wanted to win.
Dawson had some problems with Antonio Tarver in his 2nd fight with him when Tarver decided to employ a high punch volume attack against Dawson. You could see that Dawson wasn’t comfortable with Tarver’s aggressiveness, yet even with Dawson looking a little flustered at times; he still was able to dominate Tarver and win comfortably by the scores of 117-111, 117-111 and 116-112.
Bute would have to change his style completely to throw more punches, and I’m not sure that he could do what Tarver did because Tarver’s reach was almost identical with Dawson. Bute will be giving up a half a foot in reach to Dawson, and besides that, Bute hasn’t shown in his other fights that he’s capable of being anything more than a hit and run type fighter.
That kind of style just won’t work against the much quicker Dawson. Chad is more of fighter that cautiously stays on the outside, and fires off blazing fast combinations whenever he wants to. His southpaw stance makes Dawson even tougher to deal with. Bute, likewise, is a southpaw, but in this case Dawson would totally neutralize what is normally a big advantage for Bute.
I think with all the things going for Dawson in a fight like this, I think it’s safe to say that Dawson would totally dominate Bute and win by a comfortable 12 round decision. I think it would be a great fight and one good for boxing. I hope a match between the two fighters can be made soon before Bute gets much older.
At 29, he’s likely to start showing his age pretty soon and it would be sad to have that be an excuse for him being dominated by Dawson in a future fight. I see Dawson easily beating Bute no matter what age of the two fighters. Dawson just seems to have far too many physical tools compared to the slower Bute.
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