Bute defeats Johnson

By Boxing News - 11/05/2011 - Comments

Image: Bute defeats JohnsonBy Dan Ambrose: It what looked a lot like a glorified sparring match, IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-0, 24 KO’s) easily beat his close personal friend 42-year-old Glen Johnson (51-16-2, 35 KO’s) by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night.

The final judges’ scores were 120-108, 119-109 and 120-108, all for Bute.

The fight had very little action to speak of. The first three rounds were mostly both fighters staring at each other with Bute occasionally landing jabs and left hands. The action heated up a tad bit from the fourth round but not a whole lot.

Johnson seemed very, very weak without the power that he once had, and Bute wasn’t able to hurt him with uppercuts. The uppercut has become Bute’s main weapon in his last four fights against weak opposition. However, against a seasoned pro like Johnson, he wasn’t bothered in the least by Bute’s uppercuts.

The thing that bothered Johnson the most was the long reach and the jabs from Bute. The size difference between the two fighters was dramatic. Johnson, 5’11”, looked much smaller than the 6’1 ½” Bute, as if he were fighting from a division below Bute. Johnson lost the fight on his lack of size alone. It wasn’t the only reason he lost the fight, but it was enough all by itself for Johnson to be out of his league in this fight.

Bute fought really well in the 10th when he went after Johnson with a flurry of power shots after cornering him. Johnson appeared hurt as he was trapped against the ropes. However, instead of finishing him off, Bute backed off and let Johnson survive for some reason.

In the end, it looked almost as if Bute was carrying Johnson, as if Bute was deliberately holding back an all-out attack for fear of hurting his friend. It certainly didn’t appear that Bute was trying to finish off Johnson despite the fact that Johnson was there to be knocked out. Johnson was fighting flat-footed, throwing mainly arm punches and showing no power whatsoever. The Johnson that beat Allan Green last year in November seems to have completely disappeared after taking a lot of punishment in a loss to Carl Froch last June. Johnson looked as if he had grown old overnight.

In other fights on the undercard:

Pier Olivier Cote KO 2 Jorge Luis Teron
Steve Molitor SD 10 Sebastien Gauthier
Kevin Bizier KO 3 Christian Bladt
Rances Barthelemy TKO 2 Alejandro Barrera



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