{"id":4928,"date":"2010-10-03T13:32:47","date_gmt":"2010-10-03T17:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=4928"},"modified":"2010-10-03T13:32:47","modified_gmt":"2010-10-03T17:32:47","slug":"lucian-bute-jean-pascal-canada%e2%80%99s-double-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=4928","title":{"rendered":"Lucian Bute & Jean Pascal: Canada\u2019s Double Threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Gina L. Caliboso<\/strong><\/p>\n

Forgive me fight fans, my dear colleague and former boxing fan, Brian Wilbur, broke my heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Okay, so it\u2019s not that kind of a breakup, but nonetheless, I\u2019m in mourning.\u00a0 He said he\u2019ll be back, but hopefully whatever I write will have him think about this decision.\u00a0 I need to win him back to the love of boxing.\u00a0 I\u2019m not exactly sure if whether an article about two French Canadian fighters would do it, but I\u2019m giving it a shot.\u00a0 A shout out to Brian \u2013 come back, my friend, come back!\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the fight year comes to a close, there have been two boxers that have made 2010 as a standout year.\u00a0 While the aforementioned sentence can be made about both Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito, I\u2019d like to mention two French Canadian boxers that hail from Quebec, Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, there is Lucian \u201cLe Tombeur\u201d Bute, 26-0, 21 KO\u2019s the undefeated super middleweight.\u00a0 And, as a pleasant surprise to the light heavyweight division, Jean Pascal, 26-1, 16 KO\u2019s.\u00a0 Both Bute and Pascal have great potential with strong records.\u00a0 However, both Bute and Pascal are subject to criticism by having failed to head outside the confines of Canada. Even as Canada is our neighbor to the north, both Bute and Pascal face personal challenges to step outside their home country and pursue boxing beyond the safety net of the French Canadian advantage.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve been writing with RSR since 2009, I\u2019ve followed Bute\u2019s boxing career and have always wondered why he was not chosen to participate in the Super Six Middleweight tournament that has, until recently, been the most exciting aspect of boxing.\u00a0 With the onset of some questionable judging, a DQ, Jermain Taylor\u2019s withdrawal, and injury upon injury \u2013 call it the Super Six Curse, Bute continued to box in the last two years.\u00a0 And honestly, fight fans, he is the best in the division as his number one ranking indicates.\u00a0 In his immediate future, he faces Jesse Brinkley on October 15th in defense of his IBF Super Middleweight title.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that Bute has become better in his last three fights going back to 2008.\u00a0 In October 2008, he faced Librado Andrade for the first time and the boxing match went to a 12 round unanimous decision.\u00a0 It is in this first fight with Andrade that Bute raised his level of boxing to become the best.<\/p>\n

Within his next three bouts through 2008 and 2009, Bute only got better solidifying his wins with KO victories.\u00a0 In 2009, Bute fought twice.\u00a0 In March, he fought against Fulgencio Zuniga and came away with the 4th round TKO.\u00a0 Later, in November, he fought Andrade for the second time and defeated him with a 4th round KO.\u00a0 Finally, in 2010, he went up against Edison \u201cPantera\u201d Miranda and earned a 3rd round TKO.\u00a0 The hard fought 12 round UD against Andrade put Bute on notice that he had to get better quicker and take fights early.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bute remains undefeated with a strong KO record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there is one criticism that I have to mention.\u00a0 Even as talented and strong a fighter and record Bute has earned, I\u2019d have to question just why he remains and continues to fight within Montreal, Quebec, Canada.\u00a0 Since 2005, Bute has made the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, his boxing home.\u00a0 His bouts have safely remained in Canadian judging hands.\u00a0 With his talent and appeal, I\u2019d say that he has to step out of French Canada and get top billing and fights.\u00a0\u00a0 Bute remains protected to a degree.\u00a0 There is no doubt about his talent and ability, but the big fights, the big venues, the challenge for a fighter to fight outside his home country is where the true test of a champion lies.\u00a0 It\u2019s too safe and its protection to a degree.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On a similar note, Jean Pascal has also made the Bell Centre his second home.\u00a0 As Bute emerged a different fighter from his first bout with Bute, Pascal came out as a different fighter when he suffered a loss back in 2008 against Carl \u201cCobra\u201d Froch.\u00a0 Pascal ventured outside Canada and fought Froch in his hometown of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.\u00a0 Froch earned the then vacant WBC Super Middleweight title with a 12 round UD.\u00a0 In his last 5 fights since his 2008 loss to Froch, Pascal has become a better fighter, but again, only fighting within the Canadian confines.<\/p>\n

After his loss to Froch, Pascal went on to fight four more times in 2009.\u00a0 In April 2009, he followed up with a 5th round KO over Pablo Daniel Zamora Nievas for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental Super Middleweight title.\u00a0 Two months later, he moved up to the light heavyweight division and defeated Adrian \u201cThe Shark\u201d Diaconu with a 12 round UD and earned the WBC Light Heavyweight belt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In September 2009, he fought against Silvio Branco and came away with the 10th round TKO.\u00a0 He fought again in December against Diaconu and was again pushed to a 12 round UD.\u00a0 Finally, last month in August, he defeated American \u201cBad\u201d Chad Dawson, with an 11th round TD.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pascal will now face veteran Bernard \u201cExecutioner\u201d Hopkins later this year in December.\u00a0 The fight will take place in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.<\/p>\n

Both Bute and Pascal have excellent fight records. With his undefeated and KO record, Bute is an extremely exciting, strong, and tactical southpaw.\u00a0 He has emerged as an excellent fighter and is rightly the IBF Super Middleweight titleholder.\u00a0 Similarly, Pascal is also the strongest champion within the light heavyweights.\u00a0 Even as he faced Dawson, he still showed enough ring savvy and skill to earn the win.\u00a0 However, I would question and challenge both fighters to step out of their French Canadian confines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luckily, both fighters have earned knockouts and decisions, but both fighters need to take the home ring advantage to bigger and larger venues.\u00a0 Both Bute and Pascal are strong fighters and it\u2019s only a matter of time before they set the challenge for themselves to pursue those bigger fights.<\/p>\n

\n

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By Gina L. Caliboso Forgive me fight fans, my dear colleague and former boxing fan, Brian Wilbur, broke my heart.\u00a0 Okay, so it\u2019s not that kind of a breakup, but nonetheless, I\u2019m in mourning.\u00a0 He said he\u2019ll be back, but hopefully whatever I write will have him think about this decision.\u00a0 I need to win […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[105,126,1904,465],"class_list":["post-4928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-boxing","tag-brian-wilbur","tag-jean-pasal","tag-lucian-bute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4928"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4928\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}