By Jim Dower: With a great struggle Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) was able to defeat Denis Grachev (12-1-1, 8 KO’s) in their 170 pound catchweight fight by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It might have been the catchweight that got the Bute the win tonight, as Grachev didn’t look as powerful as he normally is from having to drain down to 170 to make the fight.

As it is he gave Bute a great deal of problems in losing by the scores of 115-113, 118-110 and 116-112. Bute looked somewhat shell shocked first the first six or six rounds, as if he wasn’t entirely trusting of his own chin for when he took shots. When Bute would get hit solid in the early going, he would grab a hold of Grachev like he was hurt.

This was kind of strange because Grachev wasn’t landing really huge shots like ones that Bute was getting routinely hit with by his last opponent Carl Froch last May, yet Bute was holding on just the same. He didn’t look like he trusted his own chin and wasn’t letting go of his punches like he used to do before getting stopped by Froch.

It wasn’t until the 12th round when Bute finally let his punches go as he stood in front of Grachev throwing massive single shots. It was nice to see Bute finally fighting that way because he was definitely hurting Grachev in that round and he likely would have stopped him had he fought that way from round one instead of just the 12th.

Bute will lose to Froch if he fights so tentatively in their rematch next year. Froch will simply and beat him by a decision if Bute decides to fight defensively by not throwing a lot of shots. He may keep from getting knocked out by Froch, but he won’t beat him.

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Former Super Six tournament contestant Allan Green (32-4, 22 KO’s) had to get up off the deck to defeat 40-year-old Renan St Juste (23-4-1, 15 KO’s) by a 7th round stoppage. The fight was halted by St Juste’s corner after the 7th round. St Juste had been fighting with a bloody nose through most of the fight and he just wasn’t letting his hands go like he used to do. Whether it was age or the huge size advantage that Green had over him is unclear.

But when St Juste did throw punches in the 4th, he had Green down on the canvas badly hurt. St Juste missed his chance and let the opportunity slip away by now throwing enough punches after Green got up in that round and in the following round. Green then cruised to victory behind his excellent jab.

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Undefeated junior middleweight prospect prospect Mikael Zewski (17-0, 13 KO’s) blew away Cesar Chavez (20-3, 9 KO’s) by a 1st round knockout. Zewski landed a hard left-right combination that put Chavez down and he couldn’t get back up. The fight was halted at 0:37 of the 1st round.

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In an exciting war former IBF super flyweight champion Rodrigo Guerrero (18-4-1, 12 KO’s) stopped Canadian super bantamweight Sebastien Gauthier (21-4, 13 KO’s) in an 8th round stoppage. In the 8th, Guerrero landed a hard left to the body that put Gauthier down. Guerrero continued to batter Gauthier until the fight was halted.

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In other boxing results on the card:

Francy Ntetu SD 6 Schiller Hyppolite
Sebastien Bouchard UD 4 Glisandy Mejia
Bogdan Dinu TKO 4 Eric Martel Bahoeli
Michael Gadbois MD 4 Pedro Navarrete