By Jim Dower: IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (27-0, 22 KO’s) isn’t concerned with trying to knock out challenger Brian Magee (34-3-1, 24 KO’s) this Saturday night at the Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Bute, 31, says he wants to focus on just winning every round rather than trying to tying to take out the badly over-matched 35-year-old Magee.
That makes a lot of sense because Bute wants to look good in this fight, especially with his future opponent Mikkel Kessler being in the audience watching the fight and taking notes. Bute needs to fight a good fight and now show flaws that Kessler can exploit.
Bute says “I plan to win every minute of every round. If the knockout comes, it comes. But that’s not what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to win fights and so far I’ve been successful and that’s what I will do again on Saturday night.”
Bute may end up having to carry Magee in this fight if he wants to make it an entertaining bout that fans remember, because Magee has been facing B and C level opponents for the majority of his career apart from his fight against Carl Froch in 2006, which Magee lost. Because of the limited opposition in the super middleweight divison, Bute is facing a guy that has faced strictly lower level fighters throughout his long career. There is some good fighters in the super middleweight division but those guys are all caught up in the Super Six tournament except for Kessler and Bute. The rest of the fighters that are free from the tourney are lower quality guys that Bute would easily beat.