By Dan Ambrose: In a rather unusual move, the high powered adviser Al Haymon has added 34-year-old former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-2, 24 KOs) to his stable of fighters, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. Bute, ranked #15 by the WBC at light heavyweight, has lost two out of his last three fights, and he’s seen by a lot of boxing fans to be past his prime and on his way down.
At 175, it’s difficult to see what Bute can accomplish in this weight division.
”Add another one to the list. Lucian Bute has signed with Al Haymon. #thankAlHaymon,” Dan Rafael said on his twitter.
You would have to thank that Haymon’s use for Bute would be short term. Bute will be turning 35 in February, and he obviously doesn’t have a lot of time left in his career. Haymon can build Bute up for fights against his fighter WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson in a fight that would likely generate good money for both fighters in Canada. Other than that one fight against Stevenson, it’s difficult to know what Haymon can do with Bute.
Once he gets beaten by Stevenson, Bute will no longer be ranked in the top 15 at light heavyweight, and it’s going to be tough trying to find what to do with him. If Haymon wants to keep Bute around to keep matching him against the Canadian based fighters, then he could be useful for a while, but if he loses each time he faces a decent opponent, it’s only a matter of time before the Canadian fans lose interest in seeing him fight.
Bute has a large fan base in Canada from his years as the IBF super middleweight champion. He held the IBF 168 pound title from 2007 to 2012 until losing the belt in a 5th round knockout loss to Carl Froch in May of 2012. That five year run by Bute won him a lot of fans in Canada. However, Bute never really beat anyone that you can call a solid fighter during any of those years, and he was considered a paper champion by many boxing fans.
When he finally did face one of the better super middleweights in Carl Froch, Bute fell apart and was stopped. Since then, Bute looked poor in beating Denis Grachev in a fight in which Bute took a lot of punishment and looked gun shy in November of 2012.
In 2013, Bute missed the entire year due to injuries and never fought anyone. Last year in January, Bute was soundly beaten by Jean Pascal in a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss.
Bute looked timid, like he was afraid to let his hands go for fear of getting clipped by something from Pascal. Since that loss, Bute hasn’t fought and he’s now been out of the ring for an entire year.
Bute is now being trained by Freddie Roach. Bute was scheduled to fight on December 6th, but he suffered a back injury and had to pull out of the card. He’d been training with Roach in hopes of turning his career around.
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