Don George a possibility for Lucian Bute’s next fight

By Boxing News - 07/19/2012 - Comments

Image: Don George a possibility for Lucian Bute's next fightBy Scott Gilfoid: If super middleweight contender Don George (22-2-1, 19 KO’s) can get through his next fight against Adonis Stevenson (18-1, 15 KO’s) on August 11th, we could be seeing the hard hitting Stevenson in with former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-1, 24 KO’s) before the end of the year.

The 27-year-old George is one of the top fighters that Bute is considering facing in a tune-up like bout to get ready for his rematch against IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch in 2013. Bute needs a fighter slightly mimics Froch’s attacking style of fighting, and George does a good job of that. I actually rate George as the better puncher compared to Froch, and he’s got a better jab.

Where George falls short is his work rate, combination punching and his lack of boxing skills. He doesn’t box as well as he should, and tends to fight flat-footed way too much for his own good. But perhaps the biggest flaw in George’s game is his workrate. He doesn’t throw enough punches and tends to just load up with shots too much. For George to be useful for Bute, he needs to attack in a wide open manner like Froch does, and just keep plowing forward all night.

George shouldn’t worry about preserving his batteries for later, because if he can unload everything for four or five rounds, he may get lucky and score a knockout like Froch did. I don’t see it happening, because Bute is too talented and will be using his feet a lot more than he did in the Froch disaster.

Bute’s a lot better than he looked in that fight, but made a mistake of thinking he could fight off the ropes and KO Froch with one big shot like the way Bute had been doing against the mostly weak opposition that he’d fought going into the Froch fight. Facing weak opposition gave Bute a lot of bad habits which made him too cocky. He paid for it by getting knocked out, but he won’t make that same mistake twice.



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