By Rob Moore: IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (29-0, 24 KO’s) did a great job of destroying his number #1 challenger 37-year-old Jean-Paul Mendy (29-1-1, 16 KO’s) in the 4th round on Saturday night at the Romexpo in Bucharest, Romania. Bute landed a chopping left hand in the 4th that knocked Mendy down face first on the canvas where he laid for awhile after the knockdown.
Bute hurt Mendy with a hard left hand in the 3rd round that froze Mendy for a fraction of a second. Instead of really going after Mendy to end things, Bute seemed to take it easy on him as if he wanted to get some rounds in. It was like Bute could hit him at will and take him out at any time and instead he took it easy on his badly over-matched opponent until the next round.
Most of the fight was pretty much one-sided with Bute moving in and out with his lead right hand held low, tagging Mendy with lefts to the body and head. Bute would throw quick combinations every now and then that would snap the head back of Mendy and get the crowd into it. Mendy fought scared for most of the fight, moving around on the outside and throwing very few punches. He looked slow and it was very to believe that he ranked number #1 by the IBF. Mendy looked like a worse fighter than recent Bute victim Edison Miranda. The hand speed, power and the boxing ability just wasn’t there for Mendy and it makes you wonder what the IBF was thinking about when they decided to rank a guy at number #1 who had never beaten anyone of note during his career. Having seen Bute face some really poor opposition during the time that he’s been champion, Mendy looked to be one of his poorer challengers.
Hopefully, this is the last of Bute’s mismatches. He’s supposed to be fighting Kelly Pavlik in November and I can see that as being a good fight. Bute looks okay as a champion, but I see guys like Carl Froch and Andre Ward as being better fighters. Bute is easy to hit, only has power in his left hand and lacks hand speed. He’s slowing down now at 31, and is a lot easier to hit than he used to be. Bute doesn’t fight well on the inside and is overly reliant on his uppercut. He’s fallen in love with that punch and is very predictable with it. He won’t have success against Froch or Ward with only that weapon and he doesn’t throw combinations for the most part other than weak flurries. I see him losing badly to both of those guys and possibly Mikkel Kessler. Bute is a good fighter, but not in the same class as Ward or Froch.