Romanian-born, left-hander, Lucian Bute, may have retained his IBF super middleweight title against Mexcan-born, Librado Andrade, 13 months ago, due as much to a referee's decision as to his own admirable bravery in surviving a near-final round knockout before a partisan crowd of more than 70,000 at Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.And when Bute (24-0, 19 knockouts) rematches Andrade (28-2, 21 KOs) in Pepsi Coliseum, Quebec City, Quebec, in Saturday night's HBO-televised bout, Steve Farhood will be watching with interest on television rather than from ringside as he did last October.
"I think that a mandated rematch was appropriate," said Farhood, a Showtime boxing analyst who called the match alongside Nick Charles. "With that said, it's difficult to imagine Andrade finishing the job this time -- but he deserves the chance."
Andrade was 24-1 with 18 knockouts, his lone defeat having come by decision againsts former WBA king former Mikkel Kessler when he faced Bute, who will be making the fifth defense of a crown he earned with an 11th-round knockout of Alejandro Berrio in October of 2007, and who is coming off of March's fourth-round technical knockout of Fulgencio Zuniga.
And until Bute hit what appeared to be a wall -- emotional, physical, mental, or otherwise -- Bute had been comfortably ahead against Andrade with no reason for any of his partisan fans not to believe that their champion wasn't going to coast to an easy victory.
"The fight was totally controlled by Bute. He won every round but perhaps one. More significantly, there was nothing in the first 11 rounds that would suggest that he was going to tire, or that Andrade was going to rally -- no signs," said Farhood,
"As a matter of fact, I remember saying on the air that it was important for Andrade -- even if he lost the early rounds -- to at least take something out of Bute so that he could rally late," said Farhood of Andrade, who lost 117-109 on the card of Alex Levin, 115-111 on that of Benoit Roussel and 115-110 on that of Mickey Vann.
"But now we go back to round 12 and it's an obvious decision win for Bute and no surprise that he doesn't stop Andrade, who has an iron chin," said Farhood. "First minute, we're okay, second minute, Andrade starts rallying, big-time. Bute is clearly tiring and falling across the ring on shaky legs. Third minute of the round, it's really bad."
As Bute teetered around the ring, and Andrade landed punches intermittently, Farhood was keenly aware of the rules: The champion could not be saved by the bell as he struggled to remain on the legs that had kept him out of harms way.
Bute also found to be heavier than ever, the gloves and arms that he could no longer raise to guard his face as he had throughout the previous rounds.
"With 30 seconds to go, it just became a question of whether or not Bute could stand on his feet. And then, sure enough, the knockdown came with about six or seven seconds left, and it was a violent knockdown," said Farhood. "But it was also just as much a case of Bute having nothing left as it was a guy getting hurt."
"So that brings us up to the chaotic moment: Bute uses the ropes, and does get to his feet as the referee, Marlon Wright, gets to the count of six or seven," said Farhood. "But just as Bute gets to his feet, the referee stops his count and turns and signals to Andrade that he has to get back to his corner."
Video replays are not necessarily clear, but Wright apparently felt as if Andrade, of La Habra, Calif., had drifted from the neutral corner.
"So Wright yells at Andrade twice, and he takes at least five or six seconds to do it, maybe longer. In the meantime, it's really open to interpretation whether or not Bute would have beaten the count because you have to define what beating the count means," said Farhood.
"At the end of a fight, it's a little different than at the end of round six or any other, where you know that Bute would have had to continue fighting," said Farhood. "If you're leaning on the ropes, is that beating the count? If you know that he wouldn't be standing without the help of the ropes or the corner pin -- is that beating the count?"
During his in-the-ring, on-camera, post-fight interview with Farhood, Wright indicated that it was Andrade's fault for leaving the corner that he lost the fight, attributing the time lost on the count to the time it took Andrade to return the the neutral corner.
Farhood's immediate, on-camera response was to call the result "an injustice" to Andrade.
"What screwed me up was my post-fight interview with the referee, he -- Marlon Wright -- very clearly said to me that without the interruption when he motioned for Andrade to get back into the corner, that Bute would not have beaten the count," said Farhood
"The video kind of did not support or match up with Wright's statement," said Farhood. "Nevertheless, as a result of that, I was convinced that the referee had cost Andrade the title."
Farhood has, "since the fight, done a lot of research and talked to a lot of officials" who have suggested "that a situation like that is totally up to the referee's interpretation. It's totally a judgement call," he said.
"The referee has to take into consideration the fact that it's the end of the 12th round, and that there will be no more punches in the fight," said Farhood. "So, did Bute beat the count? I think, yes. And I think that in that situation, the referee has to take into consideration the fact that there will be no more punches in the fight."
There is an irony, however, said Farhood.
"The whole point of having a fighter stay in the neutral corner during a knockdown is to prevent him from doing what they did in the old days, which is, 'I knock you down, you get up, and I'm standing over you, and I knock you down again,'" said Farhood. "The irony is that this was the end of the fight, and Andrade wasn't going to hit Bute again. No matter what, he wasn't going to hit him again."
"Now I'm saying that he shouldn't have been out of the neutral corner," said Farhood. "But unless he's way out of the neutral corner -- which he was not -- then there was no reason to stop the count. So at any rate, I think that the referee's judgment was very poor."
Bute's last bout with Andrade notwithstanding, his resume truly has been one of dominance, whether the 29-year-old southpaw has knocked out his opponents or simply overwhelmed them with his skills.
"I would pick Bute to win the rematch with Andrade by unanimous decision. And he probably wins 10 out of the 12 rounds because Andrade's style is made for Bute, who uses the ring well," said Farhood.
"Bute is very good defensively, has excellent, excellent balance, and everything you need against a pressure fighter, Bute has," said Farhood. "I don'think that he will allow Andrade get to him for large stretches, and that will enable Bute to win virtually every round."
Bute won the first 15 bouts of his career by knockout, with two of those being in the eighth round, and one being in the 12th. Three each of Bute's initial 15 fights ended in the fourth, third, second, and, first rounds.
And including Andrade, all five of Bute's decision victories have been blowouts.
During bouts in 2006, Andre Thysse lost 120-107, 120-108, and, 120-109, and, Loleng Mock, 120-109, 120-108, and, 118-111.
In February and June of 2007, respectively, Bute dominated Sergey Tatevosyan, 119-108, on two judges' cards, and, 120-108, on the third; as well as Sakio Bika, 118-109, on two cards, and, 116-111.
In fact, that's been the story even in Bute's most recent knockouts.
The Canadian was ahead 98-92 twice and 97-93 on the third card before stopping Berrio and he was pitching a shutout, 90-80, on all three cards before scoring a 10th-round knockout over former world champion William Joppy, in February of 2008.
The fact that Bute ran out of gas against Andrade "is troublesome, because it wasn't as if the pace of the fight was that vicious. If you're a Bute supporter, or part of his team, then it's troublesome that he pooped out the way that he did," said Farhood.
"Bute totally collapsed. And it wasn't from getting hit that much, because he didn't get hit that much. Now, Bute claims that he's made some adjustments in training, etc.," said Farhood. "But you have to keep an eye out, or it's going to happen again. So the question you have to ask, based on this last fight against Andrade is, 'Can Lucian Bute still fight a good, 12, hard rounds?'"
