Lucian Bute has spent most of his career fighting in his adopted homeland of Canada and has seldom ventured elsewhere in the world for a fight and why should he? He is a huge ticket seller in Canada as well as in his native Romania. Some fight fans would say that it would be to benefit a fighter in a close fight or that they are too scared to go elsewhere to fight, simply not the case. As in the case of many American fighters who do not want to leave their country to fight there is a simple reason…home is where the money is unless you are seeking a big name opponent. So has fighting mainly at home hurt Bute? Not really. But he has missed out on some major opportunities.
When the Super Six tournament was made; Bute was a super middleweight at the top but was passed by. He lost the opportunity to gain big fights, a bigger fan base and even bigger money. He basically got the short end of the stick but still ended up getting good fights against good opponents that kept his name out there, as the focus was more on the six fighters in the tournament.
After the super six concluded, Bute would travel to England to face Carl Froch who had last to Andre Ward in the championship. Bute went to defend his IBF super middleweight title showing that he was not afraid to fight and put his title on the line against a top opponent outside of Canada. Bute would go on to lose via 5th round KO.
Less than six months later, Bute would make his comeback to the ring by moving up to the light heavyweight division and facing off against Denis Grachev winning a unanimous decision. Fans watched in anticipation to see how the knockout loss affected Bute and many fans were quick to write Bute off but failed to pay attention to a few details. Bute moved up in weight so he may have been more cautious to test the waters. He would not have been the only fighter in history to make a less than spectacular performance in a new division then return looking better than ever against greater competition. After a loss in a fighter’s career they must rebuild their confidence unless they feel they wrongfully lost. So was he washed up? No. A less than stellar performance after a KO loss is a little premature.
Should Bute get the win against Pascal in their fight on May 25th, it should erase the doubts of the fans who were quick to write him off. He will be reasserted as a top fighter and should have no problems finding bigger fights whether or not it’s in Canada or anywhere else in the world.
