Former world super middleweight champion Lucian Bute returned to the ring in Montreal, Canada on Nov. 3 and won an exciting 12-round unanimous decision over Denis Grachev in a light heavyweight bout. It was Bute’s first outing since being brutally knocked out in the fifth round by Carl Froch of England and losing his IBF title back in May. Bute, who was born in Romania, but now fights out of Montreal, needed the win to propel him back in the public eye and to boost his confidence.
Even though he’s lost just one fight in his professional career, many fans feel Bute is an overrated boxer and Froch proved this in their meeting. However, while he may not be as good as his 31-1 24 KO record shows, he’s still a legitimate top-10 contender in the weight division. Grachev entered the ring at the Bell Centre with an unbeaten record of 12-0 with 8 KOs, but the Russian didn’t have the power and skill to upset the former champion and hand him his second straight loss.
Grachev gave it a good shot though and landed numerous telling blows throughout the fight. He had Bute’s face bruised and bleeding, but seemed to slow down in the last few rounds and Bute cruised to victory. The judges’ scorecards had the 32-year-old Bute winning by scores of 116-112, 118-110, and 115-113, with some ringsiders feeling Grachev was short changed by the scoring.
If Bute wants to challenge for the super middleweight title again though, he’s going to have to improve defensively. Grachev landed some punishing shots on him and if they were thrown by a harder hitter Bute might not have made it to the end of the 12th round. Bute didn’t jab enough and allowed his opponent to dictate the action for much of the fight. He also found himself with his back to the ropes on far too many occasions.
What Bute did show though was a solid chin and a big heart. He started to fight back hard in the later rounds and landed some excellent counter punches. His best round of the fight could very well have been the last as he had a superb 12th round and landed several punishing blows while staying out of Grachev's reach. However, he might have been able to evade more of his opponent’s punches if he had used his jab more often during the bout.
When he did decide to use the jab, Bute was very effective and used it to set up some fantastic left uppercuts to rack up points. When he wasn’t jabbing though, the former champ was on the receiving end of some effective body shots by Grachev as well as some dangerous hooks. Bute deserved the victory, but there aren’t many fans who would pick him over Froch in a rematch. Froch fights again on Nov. 17 when he takes on American Yusaf Mack at home in Sheffield, England, and could possibly give Bute a rematch sometime in 2013.
Bute has a lot of heart, but simply gets hit too often at this stage in his career to be considered one of the world’s elite fighters.
Ian Palmer
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