By Jeff Aranow: Showtime Sports will be putting on a great card on April 30th. WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (20-1-1, 12 KOs) will be defending his title against replacement opponent Lucian Bute (32-3, 25 KOs) at a still to be determined venue. Also on the card will be IBF 168lb champion James DeGale (22-1, 14 KOs) making a defense of his IBF belt against #3 IBF Rogelio Medina (36-6, 30 KOs).
This is a second chance for Bute to rejuvenate his career after his recent loss to DeGale. If Bute can beat Badou, he’ll once again be a world champion and will get a little more life in his once great career.
Bute has lost three out of his last five fights in the past four years. He was beaten by Carl Froch, Jean Pascal and DeGale. Bute’s only wins during the last four years have come against Andrea Di Luisa and Denis Grachev. For Bute to defeat Badou Jack, he’ll need to take the fight to him to him and put tremendous pressure on him for the full 12 rounds. Badou is the one that likes to come forward much of the time and throw body shots.
Bute is the better body puncher of the two, and he might be able to beat Badou at his own game. In Bute’s last fight against George Groves in September of last year, Badou was able to wear Groves down with his body punching and steady pressure to grind out a narrow 12 round split decision. The fight was a winnable one for Groves in the last half of the contest, but he didn’t have the stamina to take it. Badou’s body punching was the key to him getting the victory.
The winners of the Badou vs. Bute and DeGale vs. Medina fight are supposed to face each other in a unification fight, which could wind up being televised on Showtime Boxing. This is an ideal situation for all the fighters involved because it’s the best way of creating stars in the division.
Even the losers of these fights will come ahead because they’ll be better known from the experience. One of the problems the new crop of fighters has in the super middleweight division is that they have little chance of becoming a star like we saw from the previous generation that took part in Showtime’s Super Six tournament.
Fighters like Carl Froch and Andre Ward were turned into stars after participating in the Super Six tournament. Froch in particular came out of the Super Six tournament in great shape despite losing to Ward in the finals of the tournament. Ward would have become a bigger star if he had fought more often the tournament had ended, and if he had opted to take on Bute, who he had a chance to fight. Instead, it was Froch who fought Bute and took him out in five rounds back in 2012.
“April 30 on Showtime sports: 168 title card, Badou Jack-Lucian Bute & James DeGale-Rogelio Medina (mandatory). Winners unify in next fight,” said Dan Rafael on his Twitter.
The 32-year-old Jack was hoping to defend his title against former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. However, the Mexican star has a shoulder injury that is preventing him to take the fight with Badou on April 30. Rather than lose the fight date completely, Badou’s management wisely substituted the 36-year-old Bute as the replacement for the injured Chavez Jr.
Bute is arguably a better fighter than Chavez Jr., and a much more dangerous threat to Badou. In Bute’s last fight against DeGale in November of last year, Bute lost a 12 unanimous decision. The fight was a lot closer than the scores handed down by the three judges, and many boxing fans felt that Bute deserved at least a draw if not a victory.
The judges scored the fight 117-111, 117-111 and 116-112 for DeGale. However, Bute took over the fight completely in the last four rounds of the contest and he looked very good as the fight was ending. DeGale appeared to gas out after the eighth round, and didn’t have the stamina or the power to stand in there with Bute.
The 6’1” Medina’s career was considered to be heading down the drain as of 2014 after losses to Marcos Reyes, Jose Uzcategui, Jonathan Gonzalez and Badou Jack. However, Medina has since won his last four fights in beating J’Leon Love, Ernesto Aboyte, Luis Acevedo and Samuel Miller. Medina’s win over Love was especially impressive, as he stopped him in the third round in September 2014. There were a lot of boxing fans who thought Love was going to breeze through Medina on his way towards a world title shot. But it was Medina who took care of Love with ease in that fight.
DeGale is going to have his hands full against Medina because he’s a very good puncher who likes to come after his opponents for the full 12 rounds. DeGale gassed out against Bute in the second half of their fight. If Medina can pressure DeGale even more than Bute did, then we could see DeGale go down to defeat on April 30.
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