break it down: Lucian Bute vs Kelly Pavlik @ 168lbs

zuniga is one tough dude and bute beat him soundly. body shot dropped him too. bute is fast becoming one of the more effective body punchers around today. quite impressive.

 

Bute is 25-0 with 20 Ko's. He has other wins beside Andrade. You should go on boxrec but that won't help you know who his opponents were when he faced them. Like facing a top 30 very early in your career means something. Bika is a good win and the way he dominated Zuniga meant something, even if Z is a MW. In Bika and Andrade, he beat 2 actual top 10. That's better than any of the other top SMW.

Anyway, I shouldn't answer to your question, I don't think you really wanted an answer.

 

Who knows, really?

The way Andrade got to Bute was suspect, and Hopkins getting to Pavlik was, in hindsight, not that much of a concern, as Hopkins is brilliant, Andrade is not.


Lets be honest here, Kelly Pavlik has a higher frequency than Andrade, hits harder than Andrade and is technically more adept than Librado. If he starts tagging Bute, he'll leave Lucian in a corner, numb and out cold.

 

Zuniga is tough, but thats all he is, he does not work behind a jab, he does not do anything technically brilliant. He does not comprehend hooking off the jab, all he does is aimlessly (for the most part) look for the left hook.

Butes win over Sakio Bika and probably even Lolenga Mock is far more appreciative as a fan, than that over Zuniga. I don't even see Zuniga as a technical threat to the 168lbs' top.

 

Zuniga is a MW that was given a title shot at a SMW and took it. Yeah, he is tough, but....

 

no he's no threat to anyone of the good smw's. i agree. he's a mw. i agree other wins of bute's are better in the grand scheme of things. but no one beat zuniga up the way bute did. kelly stopped him on cuts in a good action fight but bute handled him soundly.

 

If he hasn't seen guys fight on Showtime or HBO, then he doesn't consider them legit...

 

I know you've seen the post. He came into his recent camp a SOLID 185 having added upper body muscle and has more zip/pop on his punches than ever.

Let's see, we have 85% of the board saying he is too big for middle weight. We have 73% saying he is too small for SMW. I get the funny feeling some folks are voting twice depending on the thread, time of day and moon phase. :yep

 

Well, guys like Kessler, Bute, Andrade, Froch couldn't make MW unless you cut a bit off. Pavlik can. That says something. On the other hand, he is tall and long, so he can easily put on some muscle without being slowed down.

 

Buffalo

 

and is a lot bigger than zuniga. kelly has him by a good 3-4 inches and yeah, hermit is right, he came into this camp at 185.

next question of yours...is he a mw? well until he can't fight effectively at the weight, yes.

 

Here's the deal on Bute's win over Zuniga. Fulgencio is double tough, and he can put the lights out with an 8" left hook or an over hand right without warning. "Z" can bring the pressure, and he can fight off the back foot.

Zuniga lost by decision to a prime Santos when "Z" was very green. Zuniga lost a 9 round war with KP because of a bad cut, and he lost a close one to Inkin. NO ****ing BODY ever just straight up handed Zuniga his ass the way Lucian did. It's not a big deal that Lucian beat "Z," but the way he beat him was down right shocking!