HBO Hopping On Bute Bandwagon; Someone At Showtime Should Be Hopping Mad For Letting The Star Slip Away
With his 4th round KO over Librado Andrade this weekend Undefeated Super Middleweight and IBF Champion Lucian Bute has shown he has the makings of a bona fide star. At the same time Quebec has become the new mecca of North American boxing and as it turns out HBO Boxing has scored big time on Showtime’s blunder.
After holding fights in Montreal with Lucian Bute vs. Librado Andrade in their first bout and then following that up with a card featuring Tim Bradley vs. Kendall Holt as well as Andrade vs. Vitali Tsypko, Showtime chose to go with their so called Super Six Tournament and shunned not only Bute but the Canadian Province as well.
That move may come back to bite them on their collective butts.
HBO is already set to go back to Quebec in February and the way they were touting Bute’s performance at the post fight press conference this weekend it’s pretty safe to assume Bute won’t be joining in the Showtime Super Six mix. And right about now they could use an injection of talent to that tourney.
Let’s face it, Jermain Taylor is all but done with his career and although many are praising the performance of newly crowned Champ Andre Ward, it’s time to rethink Kessler’s place as the odds on favorite. Neither one of his last two performances have been all that impressive and he may be on the back end of his career as well.
My point is this, that Super Six showdown may be nothing more than a fight off to who gets a shot at the best 168 pounder in the World…Lucian Bute.
Quick Quebec Quips
The general consensus coming off the Saturday night IBF 168 pound title battle is that Librado Andrade started out this fight in better form against Lucian Bute than he did in their first contest. I have to agree with the HBO commentators that said Bute looked to be fighting scared before he caught Andrade flush with that first left hook that put him down and sent Andrade to an untimely end in round 4.
As Bute was hopping around the ring when he put Andrade down with that final body blow I had to wonder if Marlon Wright was the referee would he have stopped the count and admonished Bute to get back into the corner and allowed Andrade enough time to recover to get out of the round safely as he did for Lucian in their first scrap. It’s a fair thought…isn’t it?
Last but not least I again have to say that covering fights in Quebec is fantastic and I have to thank everyone involved for allowing us to be part of the coverage team.
Check out www.Pound4Pound.com for all the latest boxing news.
Great point on Bute hopping around and ref didnt stop count to tell him to go to a neutral corner. I also felt Bute looked wary and tentative through the first three rounds and then stunned us with the knockout. But Bute said they trained specifically for the knockout, and they must have believed Andrade was vulnerable to a body shot. So what Bute was doing in the first three rounds was waiting for Andrade to expose his body.
Face it, Showtime gets no loyalty from the big boxers because they simply can’t compete with HBO’s purses, so Bute was never going to stay with Showtime if he got big.
The Super Six is a joke. Kessler was never a great fighter. He fought almost exclusively in Denmark and is a typical European boxer, stands straight up and doesnt move a lot, jab jab, right cross. The same can be said for Abraham, and anybody that moves well will give him trouble, including Ward and Dirrell.
I think Bute had a well thought out gameplan but I also believe he got very very worried there for a moment in time, his eyes looked like owls eyes and he was fighting timidly. That said, he stayed focused enough to remember his gameplan and when his chance arrived he jumped on it and that says a lot.
Showtime had Bute and Quebec in the palm of their hands and like a fistful of sand they let it slip away. If they had enough money to throw away to guys like Jermain Taylor they had enough money to find a way to keep Bute. Unless they find some way to negotiate with HBO and get Bute into that tourney I will stand firm on my take that they pissed away a sure fire star and an already well established boxing community.
I smelled trouble in this tournament since it’s inception and now that Jermain and Kessler have lost and Dirrell’s fight with Abraham is on shaky legs my Stink-o-Meters needle is starting move to the Warning zone.
Will, R U Serious? Bute, is great against a defenseless fighter like Andrade walking in with his hands down and to his side. Andrade is a modern day Mayorga a tough guy with some pop that’s it! Andrade has been softened up the past three years for what happened last Saturday. Remember nobody thought that Mayorga could be knocked out and then everybody started knocking him out. That’s the first of many more knockouts to come Andrade’s way. Bute is solid but, his chin and style of fighting won’t hold up against 4 of the guys at the super six. The super six isn’t perfect but at least it’s happening. Boxing needed the super six the top guys fighting each other and it’s not on PPV. Could you imagine how popular a super six would be at welter or light? The reason why MMA is chasing boxing is because it understands what boxing understood in the 60′s, 70′s, and 80′s that there is no shame in a loss as long as you are fighting top elite fighters. MMA’s top fighter Anderson Silva has some losses. At least the super six is happening flawed as it may be. That should be applauded if not fighters could turn into PBF and that would kill boxing. That’s my dos centavos (2 cents)
BTW, you are right about Canada. Later, Bro
This is how a guy gets labeled M-Dumbb. Mayorga has been going down for years, Andrade went down just twice before the second Bute fight. Your assesment of Andrade is incorrect sir.
So we back on this kid like name calling again? I thought we cleared that s**t up last time. Anyway dude notice I said how Mayorga was thought to be unbreakable and then he started to get broken in every fight. But Dumb A** before he got knocked out the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th time he had to get knocked out the 1st time. All I was saying was that this was Andrade first of many more to come. Mayorga fought better fighters too. To his credit his knockout losses came from top notch guys. Andrade biggest fights were to Kessler and Bute. A far cry from Trinidad, De La Hoya, Forrest and Mosley. D-Mill do me a solid and don’t respond to my post and I won’t respond to yours because you get stuck on calling people dumb. If you disagree that’s cool but save the internet name calling. I don’t name call in person so I don’t do it on the net. I was nice to you b4 but you are trying to bring the bull out in me. If you would like I’ll give you my personal info and you can call me M-Dumbb to my face. Just state your disagreement and keep it moving and stop childish name calling like a Lil “B”. LATER!
Boys Boys Boys! Can’t we all just get along?
In this corner we have D Miller and in this corner we have M Dubb. I’d like to promote that fight for the public to see. Let’s glove ‘em up!
Hey Dubb.
Softened up?
The question is are you serious?
Andrade won back his number one spot in the IBF by defeating a very tough Vitali Tsypko dropping him twice, he was not given this fight and truth be told Bute was trying to avoid him. Along the way Librado defeated Robert Stieglitz with an overwhelming beatdown and stoppage. You do know Stieglitz is now the WBO Champ…right?
You say there is no shame in losses if they are to elite fighters but in the same bad breathed take you rip Andrade who has only lost to Champions Bute and Kessler…so which one is it? What is YOUR agenda here?
Modern day Mayorga? You should really lay off the paint thinner Dubb.
MMA chasing boxing? Dude boxing is in the lead and will remain so no matter what your tattooed, face pierced White Supremacists tell you.
2 fights in the past months that sold near 1.5 million PPV buys and packed the house with 16,000 fans are all the proof you should need. Yes, MMA is chasing boxing, and when you are chasing that means you are not in the lead but instead are looking at the leaders backside.
The Super Six is down to the Floundering Four and it’s not gettin any better. Ward has Taylor and Dirrell next? Please…that’s a joke.
These tournaments sound like great ideas but when you get promoters throwing in their smoke and mirror agendas it becomes more like an auction of reposessed cars.
When the dust settles over there let me know and then I put Bute in with whoever is left standing.
Questions? Comments?
I didn’t rip Andrade and he shouldn’t be ashamed to lose to the guys he lost to. I don’t see how you got that from what I wrote. My point is a victory over Andrade doesn’t make you the best Super Middleweight. All of Mayorga losses that came once he arrived was when he fought the top notch guys minus the Spinks loss unlike Andrade he did beat a top guy twice Forrest. Who has Andrade beat in that’s relevant. You made my point for me Andrade is 0-3 against the top guys and Mayorga was 2 – 3 against the top and I didn’t count the Vargas fight. They both are tuff guys with no defense and I like both guys. Yes, MMA is chasing boxing it would never equal boxing but its taking some of its money and picking off some fans or at least spliting fans in half to where they tune into both. Will, you know I respect you and your opinion I’ve already told you how long I’ve followed you. This back and forth we have from time to time remindes me of me and boys chatting b4 and after fights. Like I said we agree 95% of the time. I won’t soften up on this A-hole! Look, when you picked Cotto did I call you dumb and after the fight I didn’t rub it in your face I just kept it moving and I even made an excuse for you. Your body of work and being right 90% speaks for itself. Everytime I write something this clown disagrees with he pulls the dumb card. Where I’m from we don’t do the name calling thing. I don’t call people names and I expect the same. The first two times he did it I let it slide and tried to make nice. But, he continues to do it so I just invited him to call me dumb in person like a man instead of on the internet. Violence is not on my mind but, giving him a piece of my mind is. Later!
Just got in from the roadie….thanks Dubb.
I understand where u r coming from totally.
I am sure will agree and disagree again and again, but that’s the name of the game.
Miller is on his own planet. I wouldn’t let it get the best of you!