By Maxime Chartrand: It’s been a long but successful journey for the 27 year-old Romanian boxer Lucian Bute. From the first time he put gloves on as a teenager in his hometown of Galati, Romania, to winning the IBF super middleweight world title in front of 13500 fans in Montreal, Canada, Bute has captured the heart of boxing fans on both side of the Atlantic.
Bute’s promoter, Interbox, has done a good job developing this young talent. It’s no surprise when you realize they were also behind Éric Lucas when he won his WBC super middleweight title back in July of 2001. They also made fellow Romanian fighter, Leonard Dorin, a world champion in 2002 when he won the WBA lightweight title against Raul Balbi in a candidate for the fight of the year.
In 2003, when Éric Lucas was preparing for his rematch against Markus Beyer, Bute, who was only an amateur at the time, was brought in to spare with Lucas. The Canadian fighter was so impressed by Bute that he suggested to his promoter to sign the young Roumanian southpaw, and they quickly did. Lucian turned pro on November 22nd 2003 on the under card of Otis Grant-Dingaan Thobela at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. Little did he know this building blessed by the Hockey Gods would soon become the place where he would achieve his dream of becoming a world champion.
But before all this could happen, Bute needed to go from a promising young amateur boxer to a full flesh professional fighter. This task was put in the hands of Canada’s best trainer, Stéphan Larouche, who also was the man behind developing both Éric Lucas and Leonard Dorin. He took a wild rough diamond and shaped him into a measured and tactical counter puncher. Since then, Bute’s style has changed quite a bit. He was very spectacular and aggressive minded early in his career but his trainer gradually turned him into the fighter that he is today.
Bute faced solid journeymen on his way to the top like Lolenga Mock, Kabary Salem and Andre Thysse. He also fought other decent fighters like Jose Spearman and Donnell Wiggins.
Larouche has said that each of Bute’s opponents were chosen for a particular reason. He wanted Bute to fight certain types of fighters and face certain types of situations, so he would become a better fighter and be ready when the time would come.
Bute destroyed his first nine opponents with ease, though his first real development started in his 10th fight, when he fought Carl Handy for the NABF light heavyweight title. With only nine fights on his record, Bute stopped Handy faster then Berrio and just as fast as former undisputed cruiserweight champion, O’neil Bell. After that fight, Carl Handy became Bute’s main sparring partner, moving to Montreal where he helped Bute and other InterBox fighters to get ready for their fights.
In his next fight, his first at 168lbs, Bute fought for the NABA 168lbs title against Christian Cruz (9-1-1), who at the time was coming off a KO win over 19-0-0 Enrique Ornelas and a decision win over 17-1 Dallas Vargas. Of course, Cruz didn’t turn out to be a very good fighter, but at the time it was a risky fight to take. As it turned out, Bute floored Cruz four times en route to a 12th round TKO win.
Bute traveled to his hometown of Galati, Romania for his next fight against Donnie McCrary. The fight ended up being one-sided with Bute dominating every round. He could have stopped the American in the first round but his trainer gave him specific instructions to get some rounds in and give the Romanian fans something to watch. We’re talking about the same McCrary who almost pulled the upset of the year against Allan Green back in 2006. Bute finally decided to end the matter in the 4th round and knocked McCrary out with a body shot to the liver.
Next on the list was veteran journeyman Jose Spearman. Bute was the main attraction for the first time. In my opinion, it was Bute’s toughest fight to date – not that Spearman was winning, but he did cause Bute some problems with his jab and reach. Also, Bute had to deal with adversity when he almost got disqualified for hitting Spearman after the bell at the end of the fifth round. Bute finally came through in the 8th round and knocked out his opponent. That was a tough fight for a young fighter, especially one like Bute who was easily beating everyone in his path up to this point. He learned a lot in that fight and hasn’t been the same fighter ever since.
Bute was then 13-0-0 with 13 KOs. He had a pretty tough fight with Spearman, so one might think his team would give him an easy opponent next. But no, next up was against Kabary Salem, who was coming off a decision lost to Joe Calzaghe, a fight in which Kabary put Calzaghe down with a hard right hand in the 4th round. Everybody in Montreal thought this was a mistake after the tough fight Bute had with Spearman and the limited experience that he had at the time. It was the first time we saw the new Bute, who had developed into a careful & strategic counter puncher. As it was, Bute did very good in that fight and ended up becoming the first and only man to stop Kabary Salem.
Bute finished the year 2005 against Donnell Wiggins, a fight that was meant as showcase of Bute’s talent. Wiggins was coming off a decent effort against Montreal’s Otis Grant a few weeks earlier. Wiggin has also had a war with Jeff Lacy in 2003. People wanted to see if Bute could do better. After a slow first round, Bute turned up the heat in the second round and knocked Wiggins out with a wicked body shot. From this point on, Bute has been the most popular fighter north of the border, attracting larger crowds every time he steps foot in the ring.
A few months later, Bute fought the very tough and durable journeyman Andre Thysse, who was coming off a decision loss to highly regarded German prospect, Juergen Braehmer. It was a very good fight for Bute as he dominated every round of the fight, throwing over 1000 punches, and going the distance for the first time in his career. A good 12 rounds of non-stop punching that proved he had excellent stamina. For his part, Thysse proved he has one of the best chins of all time.
Six weeks later, Bute fought against journeyman Lolenga Mock. I believe it was the first fight intended to make Bute really move up in the rankings. Mock was rated in the top 10 of the IBF and WBO at the time, and was the WBO Inter-continental champion, a title he won when he knocked out Charles Brewer a year earlier. Mock is also famous for coming very close to stopping the current undisputed cruiserweight champion, David Haye, back in 2003. Bute fought a tactical fight against Mock, who proved to be a very awkward opponent. He won almost every rounds and went the distance for the second time in a row.
To end 2006, Bute stepped into the ring against James Obede Toney. We didn’t know much about him before the fight other that he had a draw against #1 WBA middleweight contender, Randy Griffin. He was rated in the top 10 somehow, so this fight helped Bute get into position for a title shot. Toney looked slow and limited against Bute, who pretty much did everything he wanted in the ring. At some point in the 4th round, Bute threw a 70+ punch combination in about 25 seconds, while Toney was covering up against the ropes. Bute finally stopped Toney a few rounds later. However, Bute ended up hurting his right hand in the fight and because of that he wasn’t able to fight on the undercard of Kessler-Beyer as planned.
The Romanian fighter started 2007 with Serguey Tatevosyan. Bute was supposed to fight Rudy Markussen but the Dane was knocked out in his tune-up fight against Tatevosyan on the under card of Kessler-Beyer, so Bute ended up fighting the Russian instead. It was a good learning experience for Bute who was fighting a southpaw for only the second time in his career. He controlled the fight and hurt Tatevosyan a few times but was not able to stop him. As it turns out, Bute won almost every rounds and put another top 10 rated fighter on his record.
Then came the time for the first real test of Bute’s career, an IBF title eliminator against Sakio Bika, who was coming off two unsuccessful world title shots against Beyer and Calzaghe. Bute and Bika were both rated in the Ring Magazine top 10 super middleweight ratings at the time. Bute had some difficulties to figure Bika out in the early rounds, but after the fifth round, Bute started cruising, eventually dominating the tough fighter from Australia in the end of the bout, and winning a unanimous decision.
Then came the world title fight, the first one in Montreal since Éric Lucas fought Omar Sheika in 2002. Bute’s opponent was IBF champion, Alejandro Berrio, who was considered the biggest puncher in the division and had an excellent record in the last two years with knock out wins over the like of Syd Vanderpool, Yusaf Mack and Robert Steglitz. Still, Bute was a 3-1 favourite coming into the fight, and fought his typical style in the early rounds. Berrio was the aggressor for most of the fight, with Bute backing up and counter punching Berrio. In the 11th, Bute was way ahead on all three judges scorecards when he landed a big right hook, hurting Berrio, causing him to back up into a corner to try protect himself. Bute threw a few punches and suddenly he landed a devastating left hand and Berrio was out on his feet. Bute landed two more solid left hands before the referee stepped in and stopped the fight. The win was made more significant for Bute, for it was in front of 13500 adoring fans at the Bell Centre, +1.2 millions fans on national television in Quebec and millions of fans watching the fight in Romania.
Bute wasn’t just a young prospect anymore; He was now a world champion and a star, and had captured the heart of the boxing fans in Montreal with his hard work, his dedication and his willingness to integrate into the French culture of this beautiful city. He learned the language and became close to his fans. The fans, in turn, have rewarded him by showing up to his fights in ever increasing numbers.
Now that Bute has celebrated his triumph with his fans on both side of the Atlantic, it’s time to go back in the gym and continue his development. A great man once said “It’s much harder to stay at the top then to get to the top.”