I'm not a Bute fan but he impressed me last night. I think he can still win a title at 168 and will give anyone in that division hell
its a shame he's probably going to retire because he showed he is top 5 SMW easily last night, that was a very close fight. Degale continues to impress me as well.
It was a very good outing for him and makes me wonder what would've been if it'd been a pre-Froch Bute in the ring. I hope this at least dispels the myth that he was ever some kind of bum. Not that his comparable performances against B-level fighters compared to the A-guys ever justified that, anyways. Yeah Froch destroyed him, but having the guts to go to the Cobra's back yard counts for something. There's a lot of irrational hate towards certain boxers for a million different reasons, but I could never figure out why Bute got so much of it.
The biggest reason why I think he looked so bad against Froch is because the hype got in his head and he was afraid to disappoint his fans and lose. The skill and everything was always there. If you watch the walk ins for the Froch bout and this bout, it's like two different people. It was apparent even then that Bute was very nervous. It would have served Bute well if he made that step up earlier in his career, win or lose he'd have had enough time to bounce back and come back in a way that he has tonight, now there's little time left.
Good observation, I think that's pretty accurate. Regardless, it was nice to see him get some of that old confidence back as the fight wore on. The Grachev and Pascal fights were far too tentative - you could see he was still gunshy through those. I don't know if he'll ultimately hang them up after that performance, but it was enough that I'd be genuinely interested to see him fight AA or Jack. That's more than I expected going into the fight.
When Bute was ready to step up, the S6 happened and Bute who was with HBO had to wait for the big names to get out of the tournament. People forget that he beat Bika and Johnson better than Ward and Froch did. A past prime Bika managed to win a title afterward. Bute had all the reason to be hyped, a post-Froch 35 year old Bute just gave the best SMW champion a really competitive fight.