By Chris LaBate

At the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (27-0, 22KOs) was impressive with a ninth round beating of mandatory challenger Jesse Brinkley (35-6, 22KOs).

Not much action in the first. Brinkley tried to let his hands at the end of the second. Brinkley continued to do better in the third. Bute started to come on with his punches in the fourth and in the fifth with hard counters. A series of bodyshots sent Brinkley down at the end of the fifth. He barely beat the count. A combination of spitting out his mouthpiece and loose tape on his glove saved him.

Brinkley came out in survival mode in the sixth, protecting the right side of his body and leaving his head open in the process. He survived the sixth and began to do better work early in the seventh. A cut opened above the left eye of Brinkley in the eight. The cut was really bothering Brinkley. He pawed at the cut often and Bute was getting battered. An uppercut sent Brinkley down at the end for the second time in the fight. He barely beat the count again and his face was a bloody mess.  In the ninth, Bute landed another uppercut as Brinkley walked in and this time the challenger went down and out for the count.

A light heavyweight contest saw former champion Adrian Diaconu (27-2, 15 KOs) return for the first time since last year's two decision defeats to Jean Pascal, to win a ten round unanimous decision over veteran Omar Sheika (30-10, 21 KOs).

After a slow start, Sheika dropped Diaconu with a quick right hand in the second round. Diaconu got to his feet and started throwing hard rights of his own. Before the end of the second, Sheika stunned Diaconu with another right hand. Diaconu switched up his strategy by picking his shots in the third. There seemed to be some blood forming around the left eye of Sheika in the sixth.

They began to exchange some heavy punches at the start of the seventh. They came out in the same way when the eight round began. The ninth was a one-sided beating with Diaconu landing a lot of heavy punches on Sheika. In the tenth and final round, Diaconu used his boxing skills to sit on his lead by outworking Sheika to the bell.

Welterweight contender Ionut "Jo Jo" Dan (27-1, 15KOs) knocked out Andres Pablo Villafane (16-6, 4KOs) in the fourth round. It was Jo Jo Dan's first appearance since the controverial decision loss to WBC mandatory challenger Selcuk Aydin back in June. 

Bantamweight Sebastien Gauthier (19-2, 12 KOs) won an eight round unanimous decision over Julio David Roque (30-7, 12KOs). The scores were 80-72, 80-72 and 79-73.

LightweightPier Olivier Cote (13-0, 8KOs) dropped Walter Sergio Gomez (23-10-1, 11KOs) of Argentina in the first round, and later drop him again before battered him with punches in the sixth to knock him out.

Super middleweight prospect Francy Ntetu (4-0 1KO) won a four round majority decision over Martin Desjardins (7-16 3KO). Ntetu was dropped in the first round but came back with his own knockdown in the fourth. The scores were 38-36, 37-37 and 38-36.