So Bute's next opponent has not been named yet. There was a rumor that Joppy was his opponent but nothing has been confirmed yet so it's still up in the air. Time to play the "Match Maker". If I was Bute's matchmaker I would try to get Sam Soliman for his first title defense. There are many reasons for that. 1- It would be an easy first title defense. 2- Soliman has a pretty decent name. He has fought guys like Eastman, Joval (x2), Mundine (x2), Bika (x2) and Winky Wright. 3- He has fought on US tv many times in the last 2-3 years on pretty much every network (Fox, Showtime, HBO and ESPN). 4- Soliman came 3rd in this season of The Contender getting a lot of exposure on american tv. 5- ESPN would love to broadcast a world title fight featuring a guy from the Contender. 6- It would be the perfect occasion to put another guy from The Contender against Librado Andrade who will be fighting on the undercard. Perhaps Brian Vera or somebody like that. 7- Bute-Soliman & Andrade-Vera would be perfect to hype the Bute-Andrade fight scheduled for May. So what do you guys think. Does this make any sense? Can it happen?
It makes sense and i can happen but I don't want him to fight Sam Soliman. It's not a good move for he won't learn agaisnt that guy. He should've fought guys like this before Bika. Now he shouldn't take that step back... As i said i hope he fights Hanshaw.
Is this a mandatory or voluntary defense? If its a mandatory then Andrade, Brahmer, Tsypko and Stieglitz are all top 15 ranked guys that would be good opponents. If its voluntary then id agree with Soliman, its a good solid first defense where he should win comfortably and via stoppage.
not sure if the IBF would sanction a voluntary against soliman. he's not top 15.... 1 NOT RATED 2 Vitaly Tsypko 3 Carl Froch 4 Dennis Inkin 5 Jurgen Brahmer 6 Robert Stieglitz 7 Alejandro Berrio 8 Librado Andrade 9 Edison Miranda 10 Jean Pascal 11 Jeff Lacy 12 Crisitian Sanavia 13 Allan Green 14 David Gogiya 15 Anthony Hanshaw hanshaw is possible though.
Mandatory defence is done against the no.1 rated challenger. Voluntary is done against a top15 ranked opponent except special circumstances.
It won't be Sanavia because Sanavia is fighting Haussler rematch. If it had been Sanavia, it had been signed already. Maxime, this is so tricky! I don't know who it can be...:-( All the top guys are out of the question as they are booked in some way; anyway, they are too dangerous for a gimme voluntary. All the other guys that would make a good fight: Green for example, isn't on the cards for some reason... Soliman...if it is him, Bute'd better stop him, however unorthodox his style is supposed to be....
Bute is impressive and whoever he fights next, it better be some who's worth a dam. He beat Berrios who should never have held that title in the first place so the fight was pretty much handed to Bute IMO.
All good reasons Maxime, seems like a pretty good match from Bute's point of view. Personally I think Sam would be better off at 160.
I also think Soliman has no business at 168. That said, Froch is easy pickings for any top guy. No jab, no defense, just a big god damn hail Mary right hand threw like a drunken Irish pub man. They should call him Raw Fraud instead of Carl Froch. Brahmer is a good, though, hard-hitting 168 pounder. He or Stieglitz could be a good match anywhere but in Germany, where they celebrate Christmas every time of the year when it comes to local victories. Sanavia is not really available. Gogiya is a good spoiler, my choice would be him.