Lucian Bute vs. Librado Andrade coming up on Friday

Anyone interested?

I think it will be a very good fight. I am also surprised that except for a few Andrade die hards and a few Bute "critics", few here pick Andrade to win, even though:

i. Andrade's improved since he fought Kessler
ii. Andrade has a style advantage over Bute that he never had against Kessler, for example
iii. Andrade will come to win, not just to take part, like he did against Kessler, for example
iv. Bute likes to control the pace of the fight and keep it low tempo, to take advantage of his technical and tactical superiority, and good footwork - something he will not be able to do against Andrade who will keep coming forward and throwing
v. Bute is safety-first and doesn't like it when fighters keep moving forward at him aggressively, the way Andrade always does - something that he won't be able to avoid against Andrade.

 

I don't know. I see no reason to be as confident as you are, in any case. Bute has never been against anyone who can just walk right through any punches thrown at him and keep throwing for 12 rounds. Very few could, unless they were good enough to do what Kessler did: use that piston-like jab and his right hand, for 12 rounds. Kessler looked spent by the end too; I am not sure he could have kept it up for another three rounds, say. Bute cannot just act like a bullfighter in there for 12 rounds and win the fight. Andrade will not allow it. Bute's movement might be good enough but his defence isn't. Bute is no Hopkins and Andrade has the wrong style for him.

 

Styles make fights. Complete fighters can go out of the window against the wrong style if they're not versatile and good enough, whereas more one-dimensional fighters could come up trumps, if they do something really well that happens to work.

 

In that case Bute's footwork and defence must be much better than anything we've seen from him before. I doubt that.

 

Andrade has improved in every fight since his fight against Kessler, a fight he was underrated in, anyway. He will improve even more for Bute, because he's coming to win. Even if he continues to be relatively easy to hit and so forth, he will still be a very dangerous opponent because he will keep on moving forward aggressively and throwing everything but the kitchen sink. I agree with you; Andrade will go out on his shield against Bute. If against Kessler he was just happy enjoying being in a title fight against his old sparring partner he looked up to, with no expectations of winning, things will be very different against Bute.