By Scott Gilfoid: Russian Denis Grachev (12-1-1, 8 KO’s) thinks he was jobbed in his loss to Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) last Saturday night in their fight in Montreal, Canada. The fight looked hardly like a case where Grachev was robbed in any way because he was simply not doing what he had to do in order to beat the talented Bute.

The judges gave Grachev a fair deal by having him losing by the close scores of 115-113, 118-110 and 116-112. What is Grachev doing complaining when he was only beaten by those scores? I could understand his complaining if they gave Bute every round, but those were pretty close scores.

I thought Grachev fought well at times in the early rounds where he landed some monstrous shots against Bute, but he wasn’t following up on them like he’d done in his previous fight against Ismayl Sillakh. In that fight, Grachev fought well in pressuring the Ukrainian for seven rounds and the stopping him in the 8th. Against Bute, Grachev looked gun shy after getting hit with a lot of punches in the early going that made him think twice about just storming in like he’d done against the lighter hitting Sillakh.

Grachev did show really good power in the fight. When he was landing shots, he was giving Bute problems. That’s not because Bute was worn down from his recent loss to Carl Froch, but rather because Grachev can really punch. The guy has got heavy hands and would give anyone a run for their money simply because he hurts you when he lands. I’d love to see what Grachev would do to Froch if he got him in the ring. He’d make it really tough on Froch because he doesn’t have much in the way of defensive skills to speak of.

It would be a tough fight for Froch and I could see him getting buzzed once or twice in the fight just as Bute was. There’s no shame in getting stunned briefly by a big puncher like Grachev, but let’s not get things twisted about who actually deserved to win the fight. The right guy got his hand raised at the end of the fight and there’s no reason for Grachev to complain. He lost and he’s just going to have to deal with it.