The SMW tourney is almost too good to be true..

[BattlingNelson]

I'm not that bothered by Bute not being in it.

There is talk that he was offered it and wasn't interested. According to Froch's camp, they tried to make a fight with Bute but Bute didn't fancy it. There was also talk about 6 months ago that JT's people had tried to set something up with him without success.

I'm not saying that he isn't good, but he doesn't seem to want it as much as some of the other guys do.

Maybe he'll go after Pavlik, Balzsay, Green or even Dawson, or maybe he'll face lesser opposition, gonna have to wait and see.

Hmm. I don't know if Bute is lacking in confidence TBH. After his impressive win over Zuniga he was asked if he wanted Kessler next and he looked like he **** himself before talking about someone else (3:50)....

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[dstew]

Hmm. I don't know if Bute is lacking in confidence TBH. After his impressive win over Zuniga he was asked if he wanted Kessler next and he looked like he **** himself before talking about someone else (3:50)....

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I'm also su****ious of Bute's confidence, Bat. Not counting one fight in his home country of Romania in 2005, he hasn't fought outside of Montreal in almost five years, and there have been matchmaking attempts by nearly all of the major players at 168 to fight him without results.

The information around Bute's omission from the tournament is vague to say the least, but I don't find it at all unbelievable that someone in his camp rejected an offer from Showtime. He's been on Showtime more than any other current SMW, and is an undefeated titlist with a strong fan following and can claim transatlantic citizenship. His participation in the tourney would've made it that much bigger an event. If I can figure all that out then surely it didn't escape the bean counters at a major cable outlet like Showtime.