Mundine, easy. He beat a solid Danny Green, KO'd Sam Soliman and lost to Kessler. Lacy was embarassed in his only attempt at the elite.
Mundine imo Good wins over Echols, Green and Soliman. Went 12 rds with Kessler and wasn't hurt or outboxed in any way.
Bute, he has no embarassing knockout losses against puchers that hits as hard as an anorexic kitten(sven ottke)
Mundine But may well be Bute soon if he can beat Berrio, which he should. Choc's inactivity cause of his eye injury is hurting his standing. Either way there is a big gap between the top 2 and whoever is number 3.
It's OK to give it to Mundine...for now, even though we all know that Bute would dispatch him, if they were to fight. Of course, come Saturday morning, Bute will be No. 3 for sure.:deal
I wonder, if Mundine keeps on fighting similar competition to that in his last couple of fights, what would it take for Bute to take his No.3 spot? (If that is at all possible...!):think
Of course it's possible. Very possible. Mundine has in his last couple of fights defeated Green easilly and knocked out Sam Soliman. That's better than Bika, Tatevosyan, and Toney (all 3 former middleweights like Soliman, but hardly of the same class, and neither was knocked out like Mundine did to Sam). Bika, as being based from Australia like Mundine's two opponents, is regarded as a notch below those two also (Soliman has a W over him previously), and most people that know anything about Australian boxing can probably tell you that. On the other hand, just prior to his wins, Mundine gave Kessler his toughest fight to date. Those 3 names alone (and I suppose you could chuck in Echols, altough that was ages ago), and his performance in those fights, is more than anything Bute has done... to date. However, Bute is on a good roll. Fighting Bika, now Berrio, and hopefully a good first couple of defences (if of course he wins the title, which he should); and Mundine keeps fighting guys like Neivas (despite his eye, largely publicity in my eyes, he is returning in December) - then you'd have to swap them. There's a bunch of good low-tier top ten guys that both Mundine and Bute should be looking at, that would solidify their place as no. 3 (which I have to give to Mundine right now)... Guys like Tsypko, Froch, Andrade and even Inkin and Lacy. Beating these guys will start to give you "names" on your super middleweight resume. EDIT: Sorry, just checked, and Bute did knock out Toney. But my post still stands...
Bute. The cycloptic bumdine is probably not even going to ever fight again. His best wins have been against domestic level opponents, and any time he has tried anyone near the 168 top 5 he has been taken to school. In his most recent outing he was taking 12 by a cab driver who was brought in to be beaten. The guy was rated as so **** that the medical authorities in Oz wanted the sanctioning to be pulled as they thought hed get hurt. Its tough to rate Lacy atm as he is unfit. Once he gets back in the ring at 100% fitness it'd be great to see how the pummeling JC handed out has affected him.