By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-1, 24 KO’s) is ready to show the boxing world that he’s back as a major player in the super middleweight division after he faces and beats undefeated Russian Denis Grachev (12-0-1, 8 KO’s) next month on December 3rd at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. But, 32, fought a sloppy fight in his last bout against Carl Froch, losing by a 5th round TKO last May in a fight where Bute made a number mistakes that ultimately cost him the fight.

Bute said to Bravosovultau.ro, “I can not wait to see my fans again. After my loss people probably all thought that Bute’s career was over. But you will see that Lucian Bute is able to overcome difficult times and return to where he was.”

Indeed, the talented Bute will prove to a lot of boxing fans that his loss to Froch was just a result of a bad game plan rather than Bute not having the talent to beat the Brit. Grachev, 30, is a bigger puncher than Froch and is about as fast, so if Bute can beat him than he’ll have gone a long ways in showing that he can beat Froch as well. Grachev is coming off of a superb performance in beating one of the best light heavyweights in the world in Ismayl Sillakh last April. It was a great performance from Grachev, who wore Sillakh down with his pressure and then finally hurt him with a hard right hand. Grachev then flurried on Sillakh to get the stoppage.

Bute absolutely has to beat Grachev to show that he’s back. It’s a really courageous move on Bute’s fight for taking this dangerous opponent, because Bute could have done what Froch is doing in taking on Yusaf Mack, who is clearly not as dangerous as the unbeaten Grachev.

Bute made a number of mistakes that cost him the fight with Froch and they are as follows:

* Standing in one place

* Fighting with his back against the ropes

* Not throwing body shots

* Failing to use movement

* Trying to slug with Froch instead of boxing him

* Failing to adapt once it was clear that his game plan wasn’t working