By Jake Donovan
He’s not part of the Super Six World Boxing Classic, but undefeated titlist Lucian Bute remains a super titlist as he continues to plead his case as the best super middleweight on the planet.
While he doesn’t necessarily advance in the rankings, Bute delivered a major statement Saturday night with an impressive stoppage of Edison Miranda in front of a sold out crowd at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
The official time was 1:20 of the third round of a super middleweight title fight that served as as the lead-in for a split site doubleheader aired live on HBO.
The opening round began slow but picked up in the final 90 seconds or so. Bute was crisp with his jab and landed a left hand to momentarily put Miranda on the defensive.
The transplanted Romanian scored with body shots late in the round, then was forced to defend himself after the bell after Miranda took a swing and threatened to follow up before the referee jumped in and ordered him back to his corner.
Things went much better for the challenger in round two. Miranda’s instinct was to get hit and then hit back, but managed to slip a few punches while catching Bute with several effective right hands. Bute was still scoring with his left, but wasn’t applying the same level of pressure as was the case in the opening round, thus minimizing the impact.
A body shot by Bute seemed to energize the crowd on hand as well as Miranda, who was posturing and attempting to draw in the undefeated titlist.
Be careful what you wish for.
Bute was smart enough to not immediately take the bait, instead waiting for Miranda to actually come fight ready before engaging. A similar sequence took place moments later, only for Bute to take a step back and force Miranda to come to him.
The plan was executed to perfection. Miranda came charging in, and partially connected with his right. Bute was hardly concerned about the incoming, instead fixing his sights on Miranda’s exposed guard. A perfectly placed left uppercut sent Miranda sprawling face first to the canvas. He beat the count, but was glassy-eyed and unresponsive, prompting the referee to wave off the bout without another punch being thrown.
Bute improves to 26-0 (21KO) with the win, which also marks the fourth successful defense of the alphabet title he scooped up 2 ½ years ago.
“He tried to make it as if he wasn’t hurt, but I could see it in his eyes and I wanted to knock him out to get this thing over with.”
Miranda continues his trend of win some, lose some. He falls to 33-5 (29KO), with all five losses coming within his last 12 fights, coinciding with every time he’s stepped up in class.
His previous loss came against Andre Ward, also an undefeated titlist and the current favorite to win Showtime’s Super Six tournament.
The natural inclination would be to compare performances, something the networks love to do in efforts to build up fighters. To Bute’s credit, his only train of thought for this evening was just to win and look good doing so.
“I never thought of that. I just wanted to be at my best and win this one for my fans, which is what I did.”
The question is now who he opts to next look good against. The evening was put together by design to create intrigue for a possible showdown with middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik sometime later this year, but one more name has been kicked around, one that invoked a measure of respect from Bute, though not necessarily his first choice as his next opponent.
“Bernard Hopkins is a tremendous champion. We’ll sit down and decide who is the best (to next face). I am the best 168 lb. fighter in the world.”
With most of the best talent in the division tied up in the tournament, Bute doesn’t necessarily have the available opposition to definitively prove that claim. All he can do is the next best thing, which is precisely what occurred to night – win, and send a message in doing so.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.
