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IBF super middle ruler Lucian Bute retained his title in dominating fashion last night on home ground at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
Challenging Bute was American veteran Jesse Brinkley, who had earned the mandatory IBF position by winning nine straight contests, including a title eliminator against Curtis Stevens in January.
But Romanian born Montreal resident Bute represented a far higher hurdle than Brinkley had ever tried clearing before, as the results of the contest ultimately displayed.
Brinkley came to fight and was aggressive in the early rounds, taking the initiative but once the southpaw champion was done studying his rival, Bute began to unleash his formidable arsenal.
Countering shots began to find their mark on the challenger, who was canvassed with a whipping hook to the body in the fifth frame. Brinkley beat the count and fought on, winning some exchanges and making life difficult for the champion.
Bute tightened things up however and once the challenger was cut in the eighth, it was just a matter of time before the Montreal icon was handing out a severe boxing lesson.
Brinkley was down again in the eighth but once again showed a lot of heart in getting back up but the end came in the ninth when Bute hammered home a flush short shot at 2:48 of the round.
Bute improves to 27-0 (22), retaining the IBF title for the sixth time while Brinkley drops to 35-6 (22) after losing his first world title appearance.
The undercard was stocked with domestic stars as ex-WBC Interim light heavy titlist Adrian Diaconu, 27-2 (15), had to climb off the canvas to outpoint seasoned former three time super middleweight title challenger Omar Sheika, 30-10 (21), while welterweight contender Jo Jo Dan, 27-1 (15), came off his first career loss to KO Argentine import Andres Pablo Villafane, 16-6-4 (5), in four during an all-southpaw clash.
Ex-super feather world title challenger Benoit Gaudet, 23-2 (10), knocked out Ceferino Dario Labarda, 19-3 (7), in six and bantamweight Sebastien Gauthier, 19-2 (12), won an eight round UD over Julio David Roque Ler, 30-7 (18).
