This is how I see Bute now after the Froch fight... A world class fighter just below the elite level. SMW has three elites: Ward, Kessler and Froch. Bute belongs right under. Imo. he is and never was a fraud. He won his fights fair and square and they were not stiffs etc. Someone like Jeff Lacy on the other hand was a hype job and never was that good. He met an old Pemberton (who was retired.. and openly said that he only came back for one fight to give his momma a house) and a ref job to beat washed up version of Reid. He was losing to mediocre Tsypko before the fight was stopped on an arm injury and so on. Not that was a complete fabrication. Bute's record is not a fabrication. He beat a series of good fighters like Andrade, Johnson, Bika etc.
Witch fighter has the best chance of beating Ward - I say Bute............. Southpow, fast hands, good moments, heavy body shots, strong, long left right and holds and push as good as Ward.
He did fight carefully picked cans. It was proven when he fought someone who came to actually win in Froch. This guy was overrated to the point where a few of his ******ed fans claimed Ward, of all fighters, is running "scared" of him. Yeah you heard it right, Ward is running scared of a man who's biggest wins are Andrade, Brinkley and Miranda.
I don't get the hype with Kessler. He was the first to bail out of the supersix with a reported fatal injury only to feast on bums shortly after.
I think there are still a lot of Bute fans that is still trying to adjust to the new reality. He is not an elite fighter. Is not because he lost but the manner of the loss that showed he doesn't belong anywhere in the ring with the elites. The people that still think Bute has a chance against the like of Ward/Kessler/Froch need to wake up.
Scar, you used to be a fairly objective and balanced poster... but for several months you have been developing to love some fighters and hating others. I like you more when you at least tried to be objective.
Appreciate the fair response but wasn't Kessler in the supersix only to bail out/retire with a fatal eye injury?, he returned shortly after to fight easy targets, didn't he? My choice of words weren't exactly the best yet that's what happened. Regarding Bute, I did show enough objectivity when I tried to mention to his fans that he won't go far fighting easy targets. Obviously that made me a "hater". Wasn't the result correct? I admit I'm not a fan of Kessler nor Bute but I don't think my criticism is baseless.
:huh You do know that he was out of the ring for over a year because of the eye-injury? If so I guess you estimate time a little different than most fighters out there.