by Andrew Hall: First off, let me start by saying that I personally think the referee did a horrible thing in their first fight. International Boxing Federation super middleweight champion Lucian Bute was out on his feet and a stoppage was in line. AT the very least, the underdog in the fight (Librado Andrade) should have had opportunity to finish his man off. Could he have done it? We’ll never know. My eyes tell me that he was almost gone though. This rematch is enticing because we all have to wonder if Bute will tire again. We also have to wonder if Andrade can do better in the early rounds and thus make it harder for Bute to stay strong as long as he did.
This fight comes down to two things. 1) Conditioning. Bute simply needs to be in better shape for this fight. He needs to pick up where he left off in the 11th round and forget what happened in the 12th. If he is in better shape this time and can relax and not tire himself out he should win. He has to keep boxing the way he did the first 11 rounds of the first fight.
On the other hand, Andrade has got to figure out a way to get to his man quicker. He clearly has the power to hurt his man and if he can do it earlier in the fight, he may find himself with a win. What can he do? Its tough to do, but he’s got to use basic attacking strategies in this fight. A better defense is often a good way to set up offense and vice versa.
Who do I think is going to win this fight? I think Bute made a mistake the first time by not being as conditioned as he needed to be. In this fight, I think he will do a lot better. The only thing that may hold him back is if the fatigue was a matter of nerves and not so much of actual conditioning problems. In other words, it could have been the pressure that Andrade put on him that caused him to be tired. Time will tell the true story. Enjoy the fight everyone.