By Cliff Rold
I don’t know what’s in the water over at the “Worldwide Leader,” but ESPN2 should share. They are serving up yet another in what is becoming a trend of excellent match-ups Friday night, and it’s a fight that could have ramifications for the next couple of years. Casual viewers might not know it going in, but the 168 lb. battle between 27-year old Ring Magazine #6 contender Lucien Bute (19-0, 16 KO), a Romanian fighting out of Montreal, and #10 Sakio Bika (22-2-2, 14 KO), a Cameroon native by way of Sydney, Australia, is boxing at its best.
If last week’s epic welterweight bout between Miguel Cotto and Zab Judah was about the young lion staking his claim against a former leader of the pack, this bout is about the right to be in the pack and one would expect the proper ferocity to ensue.
Bika, 28, has lost only once in the last four years. That loss, against divisional World champion Joe Calzaghe last October, was competitive and rough for all of its twelve rounds. Bika showed that night, and in a March 2006 technical draw with then-alphabet titlist Markus Beyer, that he can hang with the best. Against Bute, he will have the opportunity to show that he might be one of the best.
Ultimately, that’s because this fight is about the Canadian ticket seller. Bute has shown to be a budding regional draw with his last six bouts hosted at the raucous Montreal Bell Center. This, his seventh straight appearance, could herald the birth of a future superstar. Bute has looked the part of potential champion but he still needs a validating win that announces his arrival.
Given the right aesthetics, Bika could be that win.
Bute has been a fighter to watch since a 2005 victory over former Calzaghe challenger Kabary Salem. Salem dropped Calzaghe and lasted the distance in 2004; Bute dropped Salem and left him there. His subsequent wins have been against a healthy variety of known veterans like Donnell Wiggins and Sergey Tatevosyan and other rising contenders like James Obede Toney.
Bika presents a new challenge. He’ll be able to match Bute’s strength on the inside and take away Bute’s powerful southpaw left hand. Solve the riddle and Bute may just be the latest nugget in a middleweight/super middleweight gold rush.
As regular readers know, I hold both 160 and 168 lbs. in high regard. It is the field most likely to produce the next great pound-for-pound entrant. Champion Jermain Taylor (27-0-1, 17 KO), Arthur Abraham (22-0, 17 KO), and Kelly Pavlik (31-0, 28 KO) dominate the former; Calzaghe (43-0, 32 KO) and number one contender Mikkel Kessler (39-0, 29 KO) the latter. All of these men can fight; most of them can sell some tickets. Bute meets both criteria so far.
So far though is not quite the same as absolutely being ready. For Bute to truly introduce himself to the money class, this Friday will be a telling moment. Currently, he is locked in a trifecta of lower-top ten fighters, all undefeated and all still with questions. Bute’s 19-0 is stacked against the UK’s Carl Froch (21-0, 17 KO, #7) and Russia’s Denis Inkin (30-0, 23 KO, #9). All three are under 30 with tough fights on tap. Only Bute has the advantage of a U.S. audience.
It should be a “Brawl in Montreal” (apologies to Roberto and Ray) and very likely the fight of the week. Lucky for boxing fans, it’s only the beginning of a very good weekend.
Underrated Malignaggi: Prior to last week, I thought that this Saturday’s HBO 140 lb. main event between 35-year old IBF titlist Lovemore N’dou (45-8, 30 KO, #4) of South Africa might be a case of too much man for 26-year old Paulie Malignaggi (22-1, 5 KO, unranked) of Brooklyn. Zab Judah changed my mind. While I was caught up in the emotion and excitement that was Madison Square Garden on June 9, 2007, I never lost sight of my scorecard. Zab gave Miguel Cotto hell in spots but he didn’t win many rounds.
The same can not be said for Malignaggi. He fought Cotto tough for twelve rounds in June of 2006, winning five rounds on one judge’s card and four on the other two. Cotto is the one truly world class fighter he has faced, but Paulie acquitted himself well enough to make one wonder if he’s almost been undersold. There were many that looked at his flashy trunks and no-power style for years wondering if Paulie had it. N’dou should answer the question that Cotto made interesting.
He and Paulie share distance losses to Cotto and, like Paulie, N’dou kept it close. N’dou can also make a fair claim to having been robbed against former 140 lb. titlist Sharmba Mitchell in 2004. In other words, he’s got all the nasty veteran chops. Add in that this could be his last chance to capture a big chance, and it’s easy to assume a hungry N’dou.
That doesn’t mean he’s got the recipe to beat father time. His age could turn out to be a big factor especially given the brutal, largely unseen, war he went through in February of this year against Naoufel Rabah to win his belt. It’s not the only war he’s been in and Paulie has the legs and athleticism to exploit that.
Like Bute-Bika, this fight is ultimately about the immediate future of the division that houses it and a young potential star on the rise. We are little more than one week from a certain epic between World jr. welterweight king Ricky Hatton (42-0, 30 KO) of the UK and former World lightweight king Jose Luis Castillo (55-7-1, 47 KO). A Malignaggi win at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun casino, before a national television audience, could make him the logical next foe for the victor of that anticipated clash. Hatton-Malignaggi at the Garden would be riotous; Paulie versus Castillo, maybe on the undercard of a Jermain Taylor-Kelly Pavlik fight, might bring enough extra fans to make Taylor look like a draw.
Expect a spirited affair, no matter the victor, when the opening bell sounds.
Toney Soprano: I guess this was destined to be a week of disappointment for those who have an affinity for heavy set bad asses. The carping has yet to end about the closing moments of “The Sopranos” (though I kind of liked it). The carping has only just begun about the latest news from James Toney (70-6-3, 43 KO).
It appears he has again failed a steroid test, his last time through this ringer being after the 2004 John Ruiz bout. He tested positive, following his recent tune-up win against Willie Standup, for Stanozolol…and…wait for it…Boldenone, a horse steroid.
How fitting. In the week when everyone wondered whether Tony Soprano would live or die, we find out James Toney was preparing as if he were Pie-o-My. Or maybe he was thinking about giving Belmont filly-phenom Rags to Riches a stern test. I don’t know and frankly don’t care (nor do I care that his foe tested positive for juice as well). Toney, who was working his way back from two losses (one clear, one not so) to heavyweight bomber Samuel Peter, may have ended his career if the results of the steroid tests stand up on appeal. He would, after all, be 40 after a one year suspension.
It should come as no shock though, even to his most devout followers. Toney has always been about the tease of greatness and the shock of unbelievable character lapses. In another parallel to Tony Soprano, how one views “Lights Out” can be as revealing about themselves and what they value as about the fighter. Wins against Michael Nunn, Mike McCallum and Vasily Jirov should be easy to admire but they stand beside debacles like Roy Jones, Dave Tiberi and these two drug pops. Pick your poison and it just goes on and on and on.
Ultimately, the answer’s about James Toney, and his place in history in light of the full pallet of his story, are pretty easy to come by if…
The Ten-Second Bell: Oh, c’mon, like you didn’t know I’d go for the easy ones…
HBO also has an excellent super middleweight prospect battle between 2004 Olympic Bronze Medalist Andre Dirrell (11-0, 7 KO) of Flint, Michigan and “Chin Checker” Curtis Stevens (17-1, 12 KO) of Brownsville, New York. It’s almost like a real Boxing After Dark card for a change. Don’t blink during this one…
It’s looking like Tommy Morrison’s still has the HIV and, really, who didn’t expect that? Anyone who signed, or does sign, to fight Morrison is nuts. There’s never a lack of Taco Bells and paper routes available for income, so fighting “The Duke” really shouldn’t be an option…
The atmosphere at Cotto-Judah seems to be overriding sense for some. Ring Magazine has bumped Cotto (30-0, 25 KO) past #1 contender Antonio Margarito (34-4, 24 KO) in their welterweight ratings. As a ‘ratings advisor,’ I’ve already shared my two-cents with Ring and now I share it with my readers.
Judah was a great win, Cotto’s third straight by stoppage at 147 lbs. against a top ten foe.
However, considering Margarito has defeated six such opponents, with another on tap (#10 Paul Williams) and a contract to face Cotto in the fall should he defeat Williams, this is more than premature. Cotto has had a stellar 28 weeks in the division, but Margarito hasn’t lost at welterweight since 1996.
There is far from a guarantee that Margarito defeats the game Williams on July 14 but if he does, and goes on to defeat Cotto in the fall, one has to wonder what new rationale will be used to demean the professional Margarito. He’s not a ‘great’ fighter but he has earned the right to be known as the only number one contender to welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather until such time as another man proves otherwise with his fists.
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