Lucian Bute

[JazMerkin]

A hell of a lot of better 168 pounders out there right now. The division is one of the strongest in the sport right now

kessler, abraham, froch, ward, dirrell and pascal all take bute if you ask me

If you think they all beat Bute then you have seen very very limited footage of Bute....Bute has more power then given credit for. He is awkward but not in an uncontrolled sense, he has great speed not RJJ SMW speed but certainly more then Froch, AA, Kessler....Dirrell is faster but not the finisher Bute is and not as accurate.....He spent the early part of his career comfortably at LHW so no one in the SMW could be considered a size problem for him...

Bute is the real deal....Make no mistakes about it...Right njow IMO the best fight in the division assuming Ward can keep up the momentum he started in the Kessler fight is Ward/Bute and it is a Pick em with the assumption the Kessler fight is not Wards swan song

I am a fan of the guy for sure....Sat behind him at the Froch/Taylor fight...He seemed very unimpressed and was very vocal on how the outcome of that fight would be if they ever met

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWEhCEUJAL8&feature=fvst

I agree in the main. He's a much better puncher than people give him in credit for, particularly with his hooks to the body as demonstrated against Andrade.

I actually think Abraham is the toughest matchup for him, despite the body-punching skills. I think that Bute is vulnerable to a counter left hook from an orthodox fighter. Abraham explodes out with his and when Dirrell with all his athleticism was missing this by the skin of his teeth throughout their fight, I feel Bute would get caught.

I feel Dirrell & Abraham are 50/50 fights, I'd favour them to beat him marginally. I think Ward sets himself up for trouble against southpaws with the way he just holds his jab out as a measuring stick.

Bute would beat Kessler by decision similar to the Calzaghe fight & he would break Froch down in 4-5 rounds imo.