By Michael Collins: Former NABF light heavyweight champion Denis Grachev (12-1-1, 8 KO’s) was having a hard time coming to terms with his 12 round unanimous decision loss to former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) last Saturday night at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Candada. Grachev, 30, felt that he lost no more than four rounds at the most despite the fact that he was getting hit with the better shots and not doing enough against the defensive-minded Bute to win.
Grachev said after the fight as quoted by the Montrealgazette.com “The judges were unfair. Maybe I lost three or four rounds.”
I had Grachev winning three to four rounds, but I couldn’t give him 8 or 9 rounds without ignoring all the jabs and left uppercuts that Bute was nailing him with all throughout the fight. If you ignore Bute’s nice shots then you can give Grachev 9 rounds easy. However, that’s not how boxing is. It’s natural that Grachev isn’t happy about losing the fight, but he needs to sit down and watch the fight again to see how he failed to do the things he needed to do in order to win.