Bute must prove himself against Grachev

By Boxing News - 10/25/2012 - Comments

Image: Bute must prove himself against GrachevBy Scott Gilfoid: Getting stopped so badly by Carl Froch last May puts former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-1, 24 KO’s) in an unenviable position where he has to prove that he’s still a world class fighter in his next fight against Denis Grachev (12-0-1, 8 KO’s) on November 3rd at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Bute honestly couldn’t afford to fight a scrub opponent after the way that he got whipped by Froch. Had Bute done that he’d have done nothing in terms of building up his own shattered confidence, and he wouldn’t have shown the boxing fans that he’s not the fighter that Froch easily beat. This is why Bute chose to fight an even bigger puncher than Froch in 30-year-old Russian Grachev.

This is potentially a fight that could put the curtains on the talented 32-year-old Bute’s career if he loses. But that’s the kind of guy he is. Unless he’s facing the best, he doesn’t want to fight. He’s not going to let anyone push him into fighting a soft touch just so that he can get an easy payday. He’s not about that.

Bute is going to have to find a way to keep away from Grachev’s big shots because we saw in his KO victory over Ismayl Sillakh last April just how dangerous Grachev can be. He stalked Sillakh around the ring like a hungry tiger for 8 rounds and when he finally caught him with him in the 8th, he blasted him out with a series of power shots after stunning him first with a tremendous right hand. Bute can’t let Grachev land those big right hand shots of his because he’s just too powerful and too dangerous for him to take that risk.

I’ll say this about the Grachev-Bute fight. If Bute can dominate Grachev and get through this fight with a one-sided decision or KO, then I can see Bute beating Froch in a rematch next year in March. Grachev and Froch are basically the same kinds of fighters, except that Grachev is a bigger puncher.



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