Boo-Tay was pretty good. Always thought his left uppercut to the body was sick. This content is protected
Ironically, like Froch he was good but quite awkward and unconventional, without the Froch chin. But he was also faster. If the 168 division had to compare to the heavyweight division, Bute's era would be the closest to the top Frazier/Foreman/Ali/Norton era. And, Ward would have to be Ali, Froch and Kessler you'd have to put as two and three/Frazier and Foreman, however you like it, and Bute is without any real options but to be Norton. He's not historically great, but he was the fourth best in the best version of the division they've had so far.
You don't hold onto a world title for 5 years if you're not good, he was very good but probably should've called it a day after the Pascal fight because in his case it's easier to remember his losses than wins.
He was clearly good. Even old version did well against Degale in his best period and Jack likewise. People talk about his chin but I wonder if they watched the Froch fight. Bute took an incredible number of power shots before getting TKO'd. Froch did not stop him easily.
Ward was no Ali lol. An ATG and a top SMW ever, but he would be underdog against RJJ and Toney, even money w Calzaghe, and slight fav w Canelo.
He was pretty good, look at his resume and how he won. Lost by destruction to Froch which badly damaged his ego. He never made an excuse (rematched Andrade when the first one ended controversially) and I know he had an infection for the Froch fight but never blamed it on anything else than Froch being the better fighter that night. I still think if Ward had the cojones to face him instead of ducking him and letting Froch do the work, Bute would've given problems to Ward, and if Ward had won the fight he would've had all the accolades for unifying the division and beating an unbeaten champ.
I was a big fan of his back in the day, he was a polarizing fighter on here. He got criticized for not going into the Super 6 tournament but I remember there was some controversy around that like he wasn't invited, not sure how true that was. He beat some good fighters, the best available while not in the tournament. He did beat Bika and Johnson and knocked out Andrade. I was very annoyed when Ward avoided him after the Super 6. I wrongly picked him to beat Froch. He had that late rally vs Pascal and fought well vs Jack and DeGale but it was over after the Froch fight