When All Else Fails, Make A Lot of Noise: Bute-Andrade

The undercard of Bute-Andrade on ShoBox tonight was a bit lackluster, Ronald Hearns dominating Paul Clavette en route to a 6th round TKO win. Clavette did not have the polish, the fundamentals, or the power to legitimate compete with Hearns and his toughness was not enough to handle being genuinely beaten up over the course of the fight. Hearns looked good, but the fight had its sloppy moments and I'm not sure looking good against Clavette was enough. Still, he stopped a man who had never been stopped before, added another win to his record, and is apparently en route to a fight with John Duddy that may give one man or the other a touch more legitimacy.

Bute-Andrade (for the IBF 168 lb title), on the other hand, was as spectacular as a one-sided fight could be and had a touch of drama at the very end. That drama was then exaggerated needlessly by the ShoBox broadcast team.

Bute came out strong, working off the southpaw jab and landing the straight left with consistency. He worked the right hook and left uppercut in every now and then, focusing on combination punching, accuracy, and defense. These weapons allowed him to jump out to an early lead, sweeping the first three rounds.

Andrade started to establish himself in the fourth, turning what had looked like a steady movement following Bute into real pressure and taking Bute out of his game plan. I gave Andrade the fourth, perhaps generously, because Bute's punches were clearly not diverting his new pressure and his increased punching output and forward movement allowed him to impose his will. I gave him the fifth round as well, which he clearly won by walking through Bute and landing hard rights.

Bute retook control in the 6th, standing and fighting more, landing the southpaw uppercut more, and tying Andrade up more on the inside to break up his rhythm. Once again he got his punches flowing and his movement in rhythm and swept the rounds from the 6th to the 11th. In the tenth, a sneaky straight left and some entanglement on the inside sent Andrade to the canvas and Bute was credited with the knockdown. The call was borderline, a punch was landed and it did have effect on Andrade, who was off balance as a result. However, their feet may have become entangled before Andrade hit the deck and Bute did push off with a sneaky little move that may have actually sent Andrade to the canvas. Bute kept his momentum despite Andrade's desperation rally in the 11th.

The final round was the complete opposite of the previous twelve. Bute could no longer land his shots with the same crispness, and Andrade took clear control as the round commenced and walked Bute down. The IBF titlist was out on his feet as the final seconds ticked away, and in the closing five seconds was floored by a big right hand and went down in the corner.

Here the referee plainly behaved as if he did not belong in the ring in a title fight. He shuttled Andrade to the neutral corner, began to count, and then moved off to get Andrade back into the neutral corner, shouting at the Mexican-born Californian. Then he returned and finished his count with Bute on his feet. Naturally, the Andrade corner began to protest.

All well and good. Nick Charles and Steve Farhood, however, immediately began to declare that injustice had been done and that Andrade was being robbed by a long count... before they even reviewed the replay to check the time. When they did review the replay, the count showed that Bute was back on his feet in approximately 7-8 seconds and used the time granted by the referee's lapse to lean against the ropes and wait. When the referee returned, Bute leaned forward, the count was completed, and the bell rung.

Even before the scores were read (though they were a foregone conclusion, as Bute had dominated the bulk of the fight) Charles and Farhood were crying foul yet again, even claiming the replay had proven the knockout despite the fact that it proved Bute was on his feet in 7-8 seconds. Yes, the referee's conduct was unprofessional, but it did not affect the outcome of the fight. Bute beat the count. The ShoBox team's continued effort to cast doubt on the end of the fight was at least as unprofessional as the referee's error.

The judges returned a unanimous decision for Bute, as lopsided as the fight had been before the final round.

I scored the bout 116-110 off the Showtime broadcast.

The fight was exceptionally satisfying, and Andrade showed true sportsmanship afterward. On the other hand, the hysterics of the ShoBox broadcast team very nearly ruined what should have been a great show.

I guess it wasn't exciting enough for them.

Well, There Go Those Fair-Weather Fans Again...

Bernard Hopkins pulled off a genuine hat trick, as I hope everyone reading this article knows, and beat middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in their catchweight bout. The armchair experts who crowned Pavlik as the best thing ever are already saying he was crap. Fans who adored Pavlik are now saying he was exposed brutally and was never any good, while the people who doubted before are coming out with vicious bile now.

This appears to be the mindset of modern boxing. Every fighter is either the greatest pound for pound ever, or a disappointing failure who fooled us all. Archie Moore's old saw 'Show me an undefeated fighter, and I'll show you a fighter who never fought anyone,' appears to have once again fallen by the wayside in favor of the notion that only bad fighters ever lose. Whether it's a Mayweather fan saying 'Yeah, but Sugar Ray Robinson /lost/ all those fights' or a writer who thought Jeff Lacy was the second coming of Bob Foster and now derides his limitations, the idea that defeat equates with disgrace appears stronger than ever in many circles of boxing fans.

I'm still a Pavlik fan, I think he can still clean out the middleweight division. I think he can move up again in a few years and do much better. But clearly, Bernard Hopkins was better than him the night they fought. People who were predicting Pavlik's easy win because Hopkins was so far gone are now claiming Hopkins' win over Pavlik as proof that this is an inferior era, because no one would possibly succeed at Hopkins' age in a greater era.

Errrm, excuse me. What about Bob Fitzsimmons? Archie Moore? Tiger Flowers? Jersey Joe Walcott? Joe Brown? Not every man on that list was successful at Hopkins' literal age, but every one of them was a man who fought at a high level well past the usual age. For that matter, add Nate Campbell and Joel Casamayor to the list. George Foreman comes to mind too.

Hopkins is an amazing freak, a man who is simply too smart to ever be counted out of a fight. He knows his business. If he wants to stop calling himself 'the Executioner' and start calling himself 'Old Bones', 'The Professor', or 'The Old Mongoose', I don't think Joe Brown, Azumah Nelson, or Archie Moore would have much to complain about.