By Maxime Chartrand: IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (22-0, 18 KOs) experienced a lot of new things leading to this fight. First he had to deal with the pressure of being the world champion. The pressure of defending his title for the first time and finally he had to live up to very high expectations from both his fans and the boxing world south of the Canadian border.
Some would say Bute was in a no win situation. He was fighting an old opponent in William Joppy (39-5-1, 30 KOs) who many considered passed his prime, a fighter that lost pretty much every rounds against his last two high profile opponents in Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor. However, going into tonight’s fight, Joppy had won his last five fights by knock out, but the opposition was less then spectacular.
There was pretty much no way Bute could do enough to impress in this situation. Everyone expected him to destroy Joppy, including the 14,000 fans at the Bell Centre in Montreal and the millions of people watching the fight on television in Canada and Romania.
Round 1:
Joppy comes out jabbing. Bute answers with a few jabs of his own. Bute lands a few right hand to the head and body. Bute continues to jab and lands a good left hand that wobbles Joppy a little bit at the end of the round.
10-9 Bute
Round 2:
Bute comes out jabbing. Joppy uses movement to get away from Bute who’s putting pressure. Bute lands a good right hook and uppercut at the end of the round followed by a left hand to the head. The champion i taking over.
10-9 Bute
Round 3:
The third rounds starts slow. Joppy Puts some pressure and lands a right hand. Bute fights back immediately and backs Joppy into the ropes and lands a few punches of his own.
10-9 Bute
Round 4:
Bute applies the pressure. Joppy is moving. Joppy lands a short flurry to the body.
Bute lands a left hand and back Joppy in the corner. Joppy covers up good. Bute lands some big punches at the end of the round.
10-9 Bute
Rounds 5:
Bute puts a lot of pressure. He lands a good left hand a Joppy backs into the rope. Bute lands two solid uppercut. Joppy fights back and Bute lands some more punches that backs up Joppy. Joppy is cut.
10-9 Bute
Round 6:
Joppy takes the centre of the ring and Bute boxes. Joppy tries to be aggressive and throw punches but he gets counter by Bute. The champion lands a few good left hand the end of the rounds.
10-9 Bute.
Round 7:
Bute takes back the centre of the ring. He immediately backs Joppy in the ropes and eventually traps him into a corner. He throws a flurry of punches and backs off. The champion takes it easy for the next minute and finishes the round strong with a few flurries. Joppy has no answer.
10-9 Bute
Rounds 8:
Bute puts pressure and traps Joppy into a corner again. Bute lands a few hard shots and backs off but Joppy stays into the corner. Bute throws another flurry and land a hard right left hand. Then backs off again. Big left hand by Bute at the end of the round that sends Joppy back 4-5 feet. Big round for the champion.
10-9 Bute
Round: 9:
Joppy tries to put pressure at the beginning of the round. Bute answer back by throwing some nice left hand and Joppy backs off into the ropes. Bute lands a few punches and the game starts again. Bute puts pressure at the end of the round and lands a big left hand followed byt a few more punches and Joppy goes down. He gets up and the round ends.
Round 10:
Bute starts very aggressive and puts pressure. He lands a hard left hand and Joppy is hurt. Joppy takes a knee. He gets up and Bute jumps on him right away and Joppy backs up into a corner again. Bute lands a very hard left hand and Joppy goes down again and the ref stops the fight.
1:08 of the 10th round.
Bute successfully defends his title for the first time. After the fight, the 14,000 fans sang Happy Birthday to Bute, who celebrated his 28th birthday on Thursday.