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If the Six Man tournament in the Super Middleweight Division is not enough to shake it up, how about a rematch, and we all wanted one, because the first was so controversial, between undefeated IBF champ Lucian Bute and Librado Andrade. They showed what happened in their first fight. Max Kellerman said Bute got knocked out twice and won the fight, and it was the worst kind of hometown refereeing he has ever seen. It’s true, but besides Emanuel Augustus getting robbed and jobbed in Burton’s hometown on ESPN, this fight was for a title on a pay network. They had a clock and showed that instead of a ten count Bute got a 21 count. Kellerman also said that Andrade should be the champion. So there is a compelling match up between the “other” super middleweight champion. In the tournament, now, we have undefeated Andre Ward with the WBA title, and undefeated Carl Froch with the WBC title. Well here was undefeated IBF champ Bute trying to state his claim that he is the best.

It bothered me that it was still taking place in Bute’s hometown. Look at Mikkel Kessler, the favorite coming into the tournament. He fought his whole career in his hometown and was a 42-1 champion. But when he came to America against Andre Ward, he got beat up bad, and lost. Also, Froch, in his hometown, got a decision over Andre Dirrell. I don’t agree with that, and neither does anyone else. So home field advantage and referees are important.

Coming in, Bute stated that he was obsessed with fighting Andrade again. Andrade spoke of how he likes to get hit and how it gives him more energy. Well, in the first two rounds, Bute squeaked by, but looked a bit hesitant, maybe nervous, which is not good. Andrade was calm, and stalked him, like usual, came forward, got hit, and kept coming. Kellerman’s description of him earlier was a heavy bag that punched back. He never goes away. In the third, Bute hit Andrade with a beautiful straight left that would stagger most, Andrade didn’t blink. Even though Bute probably won the first three rounds, going into the fourth, we still didn’t know what would happen, until out of clinch, Andrade gets knocked down. The reason… he didn’t see the punch.

It wasn’t even a hard punch, it was one Andrade walked straight into, and didn’t see, and as Frans Botha once said, “I didn’t see it coming, it’s like getting hit by Mike Tyson” – on the canvas, Andrade smiled, winked at the camera, and got back up, and started stalking again. Not too much later, and this had nothing to do with the first knockdown, Bute hit Andrade with a perfect body shot. It was said Bute got 21 seconds, well, Andrade wouldn’t get up until around 25 seconds later, yes, he was counted out. He tried to get up, but could not, he got hit with a body shot that paralyzed him, and a tough guy like him would not stay down, he just couldn’t help it. It was a great victory, and payback, for Bute, who is the number one Super middleweight right now, ironically, above the entire Super Six tournament. That could change, definitely. We are awaiting Stage 2 of the Super Middleweight Tournament, which looks like this…

Abraham – Dirrell
Kessler – Froch (WBC Title)
Ward – Taylor (WBA Title)

The top three fighter’s in the division look like this…
1. Bute 25-0 (20) IBF Champ
2. Ward 21-0 (13) WBA Champ
3. Froch 26-0 (21) WBC Champ

Abraham is undefeated, also, fighting Dirrell, who got ripped off and has one loss because of it. That’s the fight I’m looking forward to most. I think Ward beats Taylor. And Kessler should beat Froch, but the way Kessler got beat up by Ward, and the fact that Froch is undefeated with a title makes me wonder.

But, as I said, with these six, adding Bute, plus the talent of Allan Green and Sakio Bika, and Robert Steiglitz who is fighting Edison Miranda soon, we’ll have to wait until this tournament is over to see what the division looks like, and when it’s over, what happens next.

Robert Earle Stanton is a freelance writer, short fiction author and novelist.

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