Last night in front of 10,000 fans at the Bell Centre in Montreal, undefeated super middle southpaw Lucian Bute kept his perfect record by winning an IBF Eliminator with a tough twelve round decision over the rugged Sakio Bika.
Bika came to fight, having already tangled with the likes of world champions Joe Calzaghe, Markus Beyer along with world title challenger Sam Soliman, and made life difficult for the taller Bute in the early rounds.
Bute soon found that it best not to fight on the inside with his strong Australian based Cameroonian opponent and put a reach advantage to good use, keeping his rival at the end of a jab over the course of the second half of the bout.
Bika, 22-3-2 (14), lost a point on a headbutt in the tenth but the contest went the full twelve rounds with Bute, 20-0 (16), taking the decision on scores of 118-109 (twice) and 116-111.
On the undercard, heavyweight Jean Francis Bergeron, 27-0 (19), kept his NABA title with a unanimous ten round decision over Philadelphia's Robert Hawkins, 21-9 (7), and may have a date with former world champion Nickolai Valuev in September.
Romanian super middleweight star Lucian Bute moved his record to twelve wins without a loss tonight in his native Romania with a fourth round stoppage of Donnie McCrary. Fighting before >
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IBF World Champion Lucian Bute, 22-0-0 (18), has signed a new promotion agreement with InterBox. Boxing fans throughout
Quebec will be able to follow the Romanian Sensation’s brilliant career live and >
IBF World Super Middleweight champion Lucian Bute, 21-0 (17), is set to defend his world crown for the first time against a very interesting and decorated challenger in three time >
The Montreal boxing fraternity celebrated at that city's Bell Center last night after challenger Lucian Bute delivered another razor sharp performance to annex the IBF Super Middleweight title from Colombia's >
IBF World Super Middleweight champion Lucian Bute, 22-0-0 (18), can count on the support of his ever-growing fan base when he laces up the gloves for his mandatory title defense >
The undercard for the InterBox Gala featuring Lucian Bute vs. William Joppy is taking shape, with three fights now confirmed. Two of the three fights will be title bouts with >
For many it was a foregone conclusion that IBF Super Middle Champ Lucian Bute would win his maiden title defense last night at the Bell Centre in Montreal but few >
