Friday Night Fights: Sakio Bika - Lucian Bute

[amat]

OK, tonight figures to be a good one. Last Friday's show in Canada is definitely going to be hard for anyone to top but this has promise.

A lot of people are real excited for Bute, and most already have him ranked in the top 10 of the 168 lbers right now. Looking at his resume, he's been fighting guys on the very fringes of the division for a while now and if nothing else, this represents a small step up as Bika is 2 fights removed from consecutive title shots.

Don't know a lot about Bute, but Bika is a very physical fighter especially on the inside. He likes to lead with his head, use his forearms and bang around a bit. He really roughed up Markus Beyer and was really taking control of their fight and had Beyer gassed before that was stopped in between rounds. He gave Calzaghe problems but was outclassed.

So this should be a good litmus for Bute. A lot of credit to him if he wins this one. I think it's interesting, his Romanian-Canadian counterpart Adrian Diaconu came out of absolutely nowhere and blasted out the very good Rico Hoye under the same Friday Night lights in Montreal. Bute doesn't look to have that explosive style of Diaconu but he's seen how fast Adrian's stock has risen since that outing, here's his chance tonight.

On the undercard is the 2004 Canadian Olympian Benoit Gaudet whom many felt was going to do big things in the pros and he was really one of the guys to watch for in those games to do something in the professional ranks, we heard his name a lot. Now he's trying to come back from a KO loss last year in which he which he has already avenged to climb back up the prospect ladder.

Then perennial Valuev challenger Jean Francis Bergeron takes on the heavyweight that has taken on everybody in Robert Hawkins. That has the potential to be boring but who knows.

Also, the fights aren't live tonight. Boxrec has some results posted already that I managed to scroll past fast enough to not see and I'm assuming that Fightnews has those aswell. If everyone could please keep this spoiler free until the show airs in about 20 minutes time I would appreciate it.

[yoitsdan]

Cool I didn't know this was tape delay?
I echo your sentiments amat if this shit ain't happened yet.

[amat]

Cool I didn't know this was tape delay?
I echo your sentiments amat if this shit ain't happened yet.

Yeah I kind of figured otherwise they would be starting at around 10 PM in Canada. Then when I went to look at the undercard I saw boxrec already had some fights listed and had to scroll down real quick.

College World Series is on right now so boxing got a bit of a bump. Don't think anyone would post spoilers as these threads tend to not generate to much traffic but was just airing on the side of caution.

You stickin around for this one Dan? I see No Contest online, should be here shortly enough. A few threads on the main event already, should be good.

[yoitsdan]

Yeah I'm here for this, should be really good man, Bute is one of the hottest prospects going and Bika has one hard head! Should be great. Berrio is a dead man when when of these 2 get hold of him.

[yoitsdan]

I fucking hate french

[yoitsdan]

That's a stare down, I think these guys are gonna come out swinging!

[yoitsdan]

We got Gaudet vs Pastrana, Gaudet has a nice technical style and Pastrana is just raw, he also has some of the worst socks i've ever seen

[yoitsdan]

Gaudet looks huge for a 130lber, he's got great movement and mixes up body and head well, Pastran was something like 17-22 and he's showing it, he leaves his head uncovered when he punches and is very static, Gaudet looks pretty classy.

[yoitsdan]

Damn that was nice, Pastrana just got laid out, he ate a classy right hand counter and then a left bang on the chin, he gets up but Gaudet jumped all over him and he tattooed Pastrana with right hands on the ropes and the ref stopped it. Very nice performance, although the guy he was fighting was pretty awful.

[BoxingGorilla]

There another pair of high socks for you, Amat!


You know if I were a fighter I think I would have my appendix removed before my first pro fight. I am shocked that more of them aren't burst from too many body shots.

[yoitsdan]

Great year for the Hall of Fame, Roberto Duran, Ricardo 'Finito' Lopez and Pernell Whitaker.

[amat]

Gaudet looked good. I liked what I saw, loved that jab of his. A good come forward jab is one thing, but when you can use it flatfooted, on the backfoot and coming forward like Gaudet did then that is something very good. He used it to create space and the left hook off the jab was absolutely beautiful. Not hard to tell that he was an accomplished amateur.

The right hand to finish was nice, but with Gaudet being a guy who is going to do most of his work from the outside, I wish he had a nicer right hand to compliment it. He threw it low, choppy and fell in a bit with it.

Still, very nice.

[amat]

There another pair of high socks for you, Amat!

They have to be matching Can't be wearing red and blue trunks with yellow socks unless you're from Panama or Colombia.

[amat]

Good stuff Dan CC, pretty much agree with everything.

This next one might not be so hot.

[yoitsdan]

Pernell really was awesome wasn't he, I should watch some more cos he really was great.