For over a decade, Steven Butler has been Quebec’s blood and guts warrior, scoring exciting knockouts on the Montreal scene, but falling just short at the highest level of the sport.
For the 30-year-old “Bang Bang” Butler, it has never been enough to just be an entertaining fan favorite; he believes he can still be a world champion.
After his most recent defeat, a ninth round stoppage to Patrice Volny in June of 2024, Butler believes he figured out what was wrong. Butler said he would feel strong in sparring, going up to 20 rounds with no problem, but would begin to fall apart by round five in his fights due to the stress of cutting down to 160lbs. The 30 hours between the weigh-in and ring walk wasn’t enough for his body to recover in order to have his best performances.
After thinking it out with his team, Butler made the move up in weight to super middleweight.
“When I would go to the ring, I'm good in the beginning, but I lose my power and my speed and my energy by the fifth round. So I tell myself, the reason is because I dehydrated myself too much. I'm not a fat boy, so I lose some muscle,” said Butler, 36-5-1 (30 KOs), a former two-time world title challenger at 160lbs.
After two straight fights - and two dominant knockouts - Butler will go for his third straight win at his new weight class this Thursday, when he faces Stephane Fondjo at Casino du Montreal.
Fondjo, 14-1-1 (9 KOs), of Yaounde, Cameroon is a world-traveled career-long super middleweight who has fought in Dubai, Thailand and Mexico, plus three stints in Canada, where he has gone 3-0. The 27-year-old is a replacement opponent for Erik Bazinyan, his Eye of the Tiger Management stablemate who withdrew from a scheduled fight with Butler for a third time last month, citing an ankle injury.
“He’s a good athlete. He has a good jab, good punch. He has nine KOs, so we need to respect his power. But in the end, I'm gonna be the man and control the fight,” said Butler.
“Honestly, I had never even heard of him until they told us we were fighting him,” admits head trainer John Scully, who prepared Butler at his gym in Hartford, Connecticut, where Butler sparred unbeaten prospects Anthony Velazquez, 18-0-1 (15 KOs), and Jordany Rodriguez, 3-0 (3 KOs).
“He has a nice looking record though, and I think a victory will be considered very solid.”
Scully, who has been Butler’s trainer for the past two years, says the move up in weight was the “best thing he could have done.” He says he realized how important the decision to move up was after he stepped up to face Fernando Farias a year ago in a 165lbs catchweight fight, knocking out the Argentinian in the first round.
You could just see the difference leading up to the fight in his energy level and demeanor,” said Scully.
“Then you saw his last fight where he was so full of energy and enthusiasm and strength that it was very obvious that we made the right move going up.”
It was in that fight, this past June against Jose de Jesus Macias, that Butler was able to show some signs of improvement. Macias had stopped Butler in five rounds back in 2021 in what was a significant upset. Four years later, Butler got his chance at revenge, handing the durable Mexican just his second ever loss by knockout.
“I want to avenge all my losses because I know all the losses I get, I can beat the guy and it was only a bad night,” said Butler. “I will be honest and tell you that [Ryota] Murata and Janibek [Alimkhanuly] were two monsters, but I’m talking about Volney and Brendan Cook or Macias,” said Butler.
Butler admits that there were times following his five defeats - all by knockout - that he felt depressed and discouraged, contemplating whether he still had a future in the sport. What pulled him through these difficult moments was remembering why he got involved with the sport in the first place - and what it has already done for his life.
“I remind myself, why did you start boxing? Why you want to box: for my life, for my family, for my kids, for my wife, for my parents, for me, because it's a passion at the beginning. Now it’s my work, that is true, but at the beginning, we box because we love boxing, and I don't see myself doing anything else other than boxing,” said Butler.
Butler gave him hope of transcending the life he was born into, growing up in an HLM, or habitation à loyer modéré, a public housing complex for low-income families. As a troublemaker growing up in the working class Montreal neighborhood of Saint-Michel, dropping out of high school as a teenager because his frequent arrests made it hard to focus on his studies. Though he played every sport available growing up, from hockey to baseball to basketball and soccer, only boxing provided the purpose he sought.
“I love boxing, because it gave me some adrenaline I need in my life. I had no secondary school because I was on the streets a little bit too much, because the adrenaline on the street was similar to the boxing ring. Because when you walk to the ring and you see all the people chanting your name, that gives me the reason why I love boxing,” said Butler.
“I loved when the police run after me after I do some stupid stuff, and I'm not proud about that. I don't tell you this with pride, but I'm proud to be out now and to be in a good position for my family and to give a good example for my kids.”
Butler will hear those cheers again on Thursday, and hopes that, if he continues on his winning ways, he’ll have another world title opportunity: this time in a weight class where he’ll have a gas tank that extends past the middle of the fight. He feels that, with the super middleweight division in upheaval after Terence Crawford defeated Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, making the belts more likely to become vacant, there has never been a more opportune time to make a run at a world championship.
“I know about boxing, it’s only one fight you need, or one opportunity and you're going to change your life. So maybe it's going to be the next fight, or in two or three fights, or next year, I don't know,” said Butler.
“In 2026 I know we're going to have a good year, so I’m not looking past Fondjo on Thursday, I need to focus on him, but I know some great stuff is waiting for me.
“I'm new at 168 but I'm here to make some trouble.”
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
