Anyone else watching the Bute/Brinkley fight here?

[Rantcatrat]

Lol jeez people all wound up, I thought what Bilbo said was pretty funny. I mean it's fair criticism, Bute looked decent against a guy he was clearly better then and carried the guy, lost 3 rounds by my count

Who do people think Bute beats in this division? I'm sorry but the thing I can not stand the most about a fighter with all that talent is one who just gives away rounds. It's pretty inexcusable. Give me a fighter who works to win every round.

Pascal-Bute is the fight to make right now imo. Bute would be a huge underdog against Ward in my eyes and I couldn't see him coming out of that. I know Bute is infinitely more skilled and less crude then Froch but *gulp*, Froch would have made a real close fight out of the Bute that was in the ring tonight. I'm reading write ups now calling Bute 'impressive' and no way he was impressive! I mean if you can land that cleanly on a guy seemingly at will then you shouldn't be fighting lackadaisically like Bute was. Lame.

This. Bilbo wasn't really wrong with what he was saying. Brinkley is a horrible opponent for a guy of Bute's standard. He'd be maybe acceptable if Bute was moving up trying a new division. I give him respect for the Berrio, Andrade & Miranda fights, but he looks like he wants no part of Pascal claiming 175 is too big for him (even if he appears to be naturally bigger than Pascal).

Bute is claimed to be the top guy at 168. In what other divisions could the top man in the weightclass get away with fighting a man who is a top-end club fighter. Bute deserves the same crap that David Haye gets because it's a similar level of opposition in my eyes. Maybe dare I say it worse.

Bute never said Jean PAscal was too big for him, everybody in Quebec wants that fight to happen including JEan Pascal and Bute. The thing is that the day he moves up, there is no way he's getting down, that'S what Stephane Larouche and Jean Bedard said a few weeks ago. They want to make him a few fights at 168 and then move up and the way it looks, Pavilk is next on the map and then there will be a few guys from the tournament free, probably Froch if he doesn't knock out Abraham, Kessler should be back healthy and probably Dirrell too, these are all very possible options the tournament is doing.
Also, they didn't want to fight Brinkley but he was the mandatory (stupid alphabet ranking) and Bute had to fight him, now he's mandatory free for 12 months, which gives him enough time to have at least 2 interesting fights in the meantime.

You make a good point about satisfying his mandatory. Now he should take advantage of the free time and step up the competition. Unlike these Brits, I'm a big fan of Bute, but he has shown us time and time again that he wipes the floor with the B-level competition (Bika, Andrade, Miranda, Berrio, Brinkley). Let's see him beat someone on the A- level at least.

Pavlik will be his next fight unless Pavlik wants to remain at 160 and take on the winner of the Martinez/Williams fight. And if I were Pavlik, I'd prefer that match-up than one with Bute.

You continue to say Froch is an option. However, that is wrong. Because Dirrell is out and the Ward/Bika fight is not part of the tournament, Froch, Abraham, and Ward are continuing on with the tournament regardless of what happens in the Johnson/Green fight.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=5688853

The problem I see is what does Bute do if Pavlik wants to remain at 160. Stieglitz won't fight Bute. I highly doubt Calzaghe opts out of retirement to fight Bute. The guys in the Super Six are locked up. Kessler is at the very least out until the end of 2011 or 2012. On a side note, I think Kessler is done from boxing and will retire. Dirrell is out indefinitely and until we know more, he isn't an option.

Let's have a chat about this. Haters and fans. Who should Bute fight?