By Jake Donovan

Lucian Bute continues his run as the best super middleweight not presently in Showtime’s Super Six World Boxing Classic, preserving his undefeated record with a ninth round knockout over Jesse Brinkley on Friday evening at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.
 
Both fighters weighed just under the super middleweight at 167 ½ lb each for their scheduled 12-round title fight.
 
The fight hardly deviated from the pre-fight script. Bute was in control throughout the fight, while Brinkley was determined but outgunned. The jab served as the primary weapon for Bute, who also mixed in uppercuts to the body.
 
Brinkley seemed to do better as the fight progressed, closing the gap between the two fighters, but never on the scorecard. His first sustained moments of success that extended beyond a round-ending flurry came in the fourth, a round in which Bute hardly let his hands go as he spent more time on the defensive than anything else.
 
Any hopes that Brinkley had of gaining momentum disappeared towards the end of the fifth. Bute caught the challenger with a well-placed left uppercut to the body, flooring Brinkley for the mandatory eight count.
 
To his credit, Brinkley shook off the shot to rally back hard midway through, picking up the pace in the seventh round. What he wound up with for his troubles was a cut that impaired his vision and another knockdown in the eighth, this time courtesy of a left uppercut that caught Brinkley’s chin.
 
The sequence proved to be the beginning of the end. Brinkley would make it out of the round, but absorb further punishment in the next round, getting drilled with one more left uppercut, this one sending him flat on his back as the referee waved off the bout without issuing a count.
 
The official time was 2:47 of the ninth round.
 
Bute makes the sixth successful defense of the alphabet belt he acquired three years ago almost to the date, as he improves to 27-0 (22KO).
 
Brinkley falls to 35-6 (22KO) with the loss, his first in more than three years as he snaps a nine-fight win streak in the process.
 
While the Super Six continues to apply one band-aid after another on its nearly busted brackets, Bute hasn’t done much to further advance his own career.
 
A rematch win over Librado Andrade last year rates as perhaps the best moment of his three-year title reign thus far, with his 2010 campaign having come against fringe contenders and retreads such as Brinkley and Edison Miranda.
 
Once upon on the table was the possibility of a fight with Kelly Pavlik, who was still middleweight king at the time of such rumors.
 
Such a matchup is once again being discussed as a possibility for sometime in 2011, as Pavlik returns to the ring next month and appears to be done with the middleweight division.
 
The fight would be the perfect lead-in to the targeted conclusion of the Super Six. If no further delays come about (a very big if, these days), then perhaps by this time next year, Lucian Bute and the tournament winner can help narrow down the super middleweight division to a Super One.
 
DIACONU RETURNS TO RING, WIN COLUMN
  
The televised co-feature saw former light heavyweight titlist Adrian Diaconu find his way to the win column for the first time in 18 months. It wasn’t easy, however, as he had to climb off of the canvas to otherwise dominate Omar Sheika over ten rounds.
 
Scores were 98-91, 97-92 and 98-92 for Diaconu.
 
The fight was Diaconu’s first of 2010, taking most of the year off after having dropped two straight to Jean Pascal last year for the only two losses of his career. The first loss resulted in his relinquishing an alphabet title without having made a successful defense, with the rematch far more lopsided than the first bout.
 
Sheika was believed to be tailor-made for Diaconu, and was for the most part. However, the Romanian, now based out of Canada, survived a scare after being floored in the second round. It turned out to be one of the few bright spots for Sheika, who enjoyed brief success late in the fight, but nowhere near enough to make an impact on the scorecards.
 
Diaconu basically won the fight by outworking the faded journeyman. It took a few rounds to shake off the ring rust, but looked like shades of his old self as the fight progressed. 
 
The much-needed win advances Diaconu to 27-2 (15KO), his first win since a tune-up bout in the very same arena in April 2008. Both of his losses also took place in the Bell Centre, where Diaconu has now appeared 13 times in his nine year career.
 
Sheika falls to 30-10 (21KO), snapping a three fight win streak as a result.

The show was presented by Interbox in association with Let’s Get It On Promotions.
 
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 .