Allan Fox: IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale (22-1, 14 KOs) won a controversial 12 round unanimous decision over former IBF 168lb champion Lucian Bute (32-3, 25 KOs) on Saturday night at the Vidéotron Centre in Quebec City, in Quebec, Canada. The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 117-111 and 117-111. DeGale appeared to lost the last five rounds of the fight. I had the fight scored a 12 round draw.
The scoring was controversial because it was difficult to give DeGale any of the rounds after the 7th, because he was moving constantly and getting nailed by Bute.
In the 5th round, DeGale suffered a cut over his left eye from a clash of heads. Bute later said that he couldn’t see out of his eye after the cut, which might explain why he had problems with connecting in the second half of the fight. DeGale was missing frequently and just looking to move around the ring to avoid shots.
“I’m young and I’m fresh,” DeGale said afterwards when being interviewed. “I’m just getting better. I’m peaking. Las Vegas for April of next year [against WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack]. Let’s do it,” DeGale said.
DeGale will need to fight a lot better against Badou Jack than he did against Bute, because he’s a better body puncher with better accuracy and he’s faster and good at cutting off the ring. The fight would take place in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“If the judges gave him the win, I respect it,” a disappointed Bute said after the fight. “I’ll get back in the gym and continue to work.”
Bute proved a lot in this fight tonight. He proved that he’s not over the hill like many boxing fans had though he was going into this fight. Bute also proved that he’s at least as good as DeGale, because the fight appeared to be a draw in my book. If Bute is still good enough to fight DeGale to a stand still, then he’s tied with being the No.1 fighter in the 168lb division.
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#2 WBC unbeaten Eleider Alvarez (19-0, 10 KOs) won a close controversial 12 round majority decision over #1 WBC Iaac Chilemba (24-3-2, 10 KOs). The final judges’ scores were 114-114, 118-110 and 115-113. The 118-110 score was ridiculous. The fight was a lot closer than that score.
Alvarez fought well in the first four rounds, but Chilemba appeared to take over the fight from the 5th round on and dominate the action. Alvarez looked tired and spent in the last eight rounds, and not properly motivated to attack Chilemba like he had in the first four rounds of the fight.
With the win, Alvarez is now the WBC mandatory challenger to WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson. That fight will take place in 2016. It’s not a good match-up for Alvarez, because Stevenson is faster and more powerful than him. Alvarez would be better off going after WBA “regular” light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer, as he’s seen as the weak link among the 175lb champions in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans.
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Light welterweight Adrien Granados (17-4-2, 12 KOs) scored a surprising 8th round knockout win on Saturday night against the highly hyped big punching #1 WBC 140lb contender Amir Imam (18-1, 15 KOs). Granados came into the fight as little more than the opponent in what was supposed to be a showcase fight for Imam.
However, Granados got up off the canvas in the 1st round to come back and gave Imam a bad pounding. in the 8th, Granados had Imam out on his feet. The fight was then stopped at 2:34 of the round by referee Alain Villeneuve. The loss ruins Imam’s chances of a title shot against WBC light welterweight champion Viktor Postol.
There were some boxing fans out there who felt that Imam had the punching power, height and talent to defeat Postol. We’ll never know if that was something that he could have achieved.
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In other action on the card, unbeaten heavyweight Oscar Rivas (18-0, 13 Kos) defeated journeyman Joey Abell (31-9, 29 KOs) by a 2nd round knockout. Rivas knocked Abell down with a flurry of shots in the 2nd round to put him down on the canvas. Rivas landed a right hand after Abell was on his way down. The fight was stopped at :46 of the 2nd round by referee Steve St-Germain . Rivas did a better job on Abell than Tyson Fury, who stopped Abell in the 4th round in February 2014.
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Other boxing results on the card”
Manuel Pucheta RTD 6 Bogdan Dinu
Yves Ulysse Jr TKO 5 Randy Lozano
Vislan Dalkhaev UD 6 Antonio Olguin
David Maltais MD 4 Lucnor Desere
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