By Cliff Rold
With all the hype around the “Super Six” tournament at 168 lbs., it could almost be forgotten that there are serious players in the class outside the event.
There’s a case to be made that the best Super Middleweight in the world might be one of them. WBA titlist Andre Ward, a week removed from a marvelous win against the assumed number one over the last couple years, Mikkel Kessler, can make a strong case as well.
Bute has been competing in the upper echelon of the division longer. Ward’s big win was just that good.
Bute can strengthen his argument by handling some unresolved business. On October 24, 2008, Bute won most of the first eleven rounds against Mexican toughie Librado Andrade. He also took just enough heat in winning them to be all but worn out in the twelfth and final round. By the time the final bell sounded, Bute looked like anything but a winner.
He also looked like a man who got a little help. As noted in the post-fight report card for Bute-Andrade I:
…the one big negative in the ring on Friday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal needs to be addressed:
Referee Marlon Wright.
Certainly he had a tough job and Librado Andrade (27-2, 21 KO) supplied plenty of stuff to be warned for with liberal use of his head and elbows. However, the illegal tactics went both ways and IBF titlist Lucien Bute (23-0, 18 KO), who held constantly, didn’t begin hearing serious warnings for it until the last third of the fight. For most of the twelve rounds, Wright’s judgment appeared questionable and his officiating unquestionably one-sided.
How bad was it?
He blew a knockdown call against Andrade on a clear trip/slip in the tenth; warned Andrade following Bute enacting a clinch and lift of Andrade’s left leg; applied excessive quickness in breaking the fighters anytime Bute was buzzed and clinched but more relaxed about breaking when Bute was locking in headlocks…and that wasn’t the worst of it.
In round eleven, just past the halfway mark, Andrade landed a hellacious left hand. Sweat exploded from the head of Bute and his body reeled beneath him. He did the same thing and reached to hold while Andrade looked to find room for the blow which could deposit Bute on the floor. Andrade swung Bute around in the corner and Wright called a break to warn him. No problem there…but the break resulted in a lengthy admonishment allowing Bute close to 15 second recover time. It was clear Bute was surviving with the seconds ticking towards the twelfth.
The twelfth would have greater controversy of its own. Andrade was well behind on points; it was obvious. With both eyes swelling shut though, it was Bute who looked the part of whooped. In the final minute, with his knees wavering, Andrade piled on punishment wherever he could. At the :37 mark, Andrade landed a left hook and Bute clinched, Andrade eating three more lefts to the temple as Bute held his right arm. Wright yelled break, pushing hard on the chest of Andrade and holding him at arm’s length for a solid two or three valuable seconds.
Andrade landed another series of rights and lefts, chasing a flailing Bute across the ring and Bute clinched again. Wright broke them at the eight second mark but was out of position, standing directly in Andrade’s path on the right side as Andrade was forced to move through him to get to Bute for what would need to be a miracle blow. With two seconds to go, Andrade landed that blow, a right hook that dropped Bute like a log in the corner.
To his credit, Bute was up at what would have been eight, but he couldn’t stand straight and leaned over the top rope. Wright didn’t see it because he was busy making sure Andrade was standing exactly where he wanted him to in the neutral corner, which Andrade was near in the first place. It was the strictest enforcement of the rule seen applied perhaps since Dempsey-Tunney II. By the time he returned to the count, at least nine seconds later, Bute could at least stand straight up and the question of whether he could have declared himself fit to continue within a normal count was gone.
Wright’s assertion after the bout that he didn’t feel Bute could have beaten the count without what he saw as the need to harshly warn Andrade didn’t decrease the certain chatter among fight fans.
There is no question Bute deserved the points decision, but controversy in a town that operates as home turf can dog a fighter long after the final bell. Good for fans; it’s the sort of dogging rematches are made for.
The rematch is here.
Can Andrade get to Bute earlier this time around? Can Bute be more judicious with his defense?
Let’s go to the report card.
The Ledgers
Lucian Bute
Age: 29
Title: IBF Super Middleweight (2007-Present, 3 Defenses)
Height: 6’2
Weight: 166
Average Weight – Last Five Fights: 167.55 lbs.
Hails from: Galati, Romania (Resides in Montreal, Quebec)
Record: 24-0, 19 KO
BoxingScene Rank: #1
Record in Major Title Fights: 4-0, 3 KO
Current/Former World Champions/Titlists Defeated: 3 (Dingaan Thobela, Alejandro Berrio, William Joppy)
Vs.
Librado Andrade
Age: 31
Title: None
Height: 6’2
Weight: 166
Average Weight – Last Five Fights: 167.45 lbs.
Hails from: Guanajuato, Mexico (Resides in La Habra, California)
Record: 28-2, 21 KO
BoxingScene Rank: #7
Record in Major Title Fights: 0-2
Current/Former World Champions/Titlists Defeated: 2 (Otis Grant, Robert Stieglitz)
Current/Former World Champions/Titlists Faced in Defeat: 2 (Mikkel Kessler, Lucian Bute)
Pre-Fight Grades
Speed – Bute B+; Andrade B-
Power – Bute B; Andrade B+
Defense – Bute B; Andrade C
Intangibles – Andrade A; Bute B+
Little has changed since the last time these men met in the ring. Each has fought once. Each has won once, Bute by knockout and Andrade by decision. Bute’s speed and awkward southpaw angles should allow for a comfortable lead again early on. He’s got a quick right jab which he can use is flicking fashion to distract foes and with mustard to maintain space. Behind it, he throws the left well from underneath and also sweeping towards the chin. Andrade doesn’t get it done with speed, but he’s man enough to throw even while he taking shots and he doesn’t much care where he lands.
That’s because Andrade has the sort of thudding affect which can wear down anyone. The only fighter he couldn’t get to as yet was Kessler back in 2007, and Kessler had to be almost perfect to avoid it. Andrade is one of those guys who can suddenly be winning despite everything one sees up to the moment he takes over. Bute looked dominant the first time, but there were moments throughout where Andrade could be seen getting closer, could see Bute growing more weary of the price he had to pay to keep Andrade off him. Had it been a fifteen round fight…
Of course it isn’t a fifteen round fight and there are things Bute can do to avoid being drawn in to a late struggle again. The titlist can have good defense but sometimes gets too relaxed, allowing his hands to drop closer to his waist than his chin. He doesn’t defend the body well either. He needs to improve both to maximize his path to a repeat win on Saturday night. Andrade’s defense…okay, he’s not much for defense.
What Andrade brings is a measure of courage and a big chin. It’s not that he can’t be hurt. Andrade was hurt badly and dropped by Yusaf Mack in 2007. That’s a single memory though; his chin has been reliable. One wonders, as he ages, how many more shots he can take before his body gives in but he’s been in too few fights to assume the moment is coming with immediacy. Andrade is all fighter in the ring, willing to bend rules through sheer aggression to get to his man. Bute’s chin was fine versus Andrade. He took a full body assault over the course of the fight. To his credit, he did get up before ten and was willing himself to stay standing long before the final shots which dropped him. He’s a proud titlist and it’s worth wondering if surviving Andrade the first time might actually have made him a better fighter.
The Pick
The thinking here is that it did.
Bute is a good fighter growing into a better one. Having the rematch in Quebec City will be no different than Montreal. It’s his house and he can feel comfortable. Andrade may be at his last chance moment in terms of titles so he can be expected to bring it. Bute will as well, needing to win as he decides whether to bolster his creds and wait out the Super Six or perhaps tempt the Light Heavyweight class.
Andrade will have big moments again but Bute will box safer, smarter, and win another decision without controversy this time around.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com