Lucian Bute vs. Fulgencio Zuniga: Round By Round

The show begins with a look back at Lucian Bute's fight against Librado Andrade. Marlon Wright will not be reffing tonight.

Steve Farhood interviewed Bute earlier tonight. Bute said he is over that Andrade fight incident. It was a hard fight, but he was the better fighter. The most important thing was that he won.

Were there any changes made for tonight's fight considering that fight?
Bute worked a little more with his physical trainer and made more mental preparation.

Zuniga gets discussed. Farhood thinks he needs to fight the same way Andrade did: soak up punishment.

Here comes Zuniga to the ring. As usual, in Canada the ring entrances and the set design are more elaborate. Zuniga comes out to a somewhat mid-tempo to slow song with lots of girls holding flags in the ring.

Bute gets shown on the Jumbotron and the crowd is already going nuts as he walks through the backstage area.

The crowd appears to have borrowed the Terrible Towel angle as quite of few them appear to be swinging white towels. This is a long walk through the tunnels.

They darken the lights and the screen effects have started and out comes Bute. Sounds like "Where the Streets Have No Name" by U2. I think he came out to that against Andrade as well.

One judge from Atlantic City, two from Montreal. Zuniga tipped the scales at 167.7 for the weigh-in, while Bute was 167.4.

Here we go.

Round 1
Bute looks noticably taller. Both men circle and throw jabs. Zuniga jabs to the body. Grab in the middle of the ring. Nice left from Bute. Uppercut from Bute, who knocks Zuniga off balance. Zuniga is fighting conventionally, and he looks okay in there to start.

Uatu: Bute 10-9

Round 2
Bute is fighting his fight so far. He looks just the same as he did in the majority of the Andrade fight. There isn't a whole lot of action going on. Neither man is throwing stiff shots at this point; Bute probably more so than his opponent. Zuniga has been trying the straight to the body occasionally. Bute is having some success with a lead straight left. There's a left to the body from Bute, who is taking control now. He looks confident in there. Zuniga so far doesn't look like he has too much to offer Bute.

Uatu: Bute 10-9

Round 3
Zuniga is keeping his distance. One-two from Bute, nicely done. Big left from Bute. Zuniga had to take a step back. He isn't able to close the distance enough. Uppercut from Bute. If Zuniga keeps at this distance, he is toast. Bute is gaining more confidence and forces Zuniga to cover up. Two more strong lefts from Bute. Zuniga sneaks a left in. Bute looks much bigger and stronger. Add faster to that too. Bute has mixed in a lot of different types of offense, but Zniga has been one note.

Uatu: Bute 10-9

Round 4
Left hook to the body attempt from Zuniga. Right jab attempt from Bute forces a step back again. Zuniga tries to in-fight for the first real time for no real damage. Bute hitting body and head with the lefts. There's another left to the head and a big left to the body. The announcer says it was low, but the ref gives him the count! Zuniga gets up at eight. Here comes in Bute for the win. Zuniga weathers it partially. He isn't clinching, as Farhood notes. Hre comes Bute again in for the finish! H works Zuniga against the ropes and it's over! Bute gets the win!

The winner by TKO at 2:25 of Round 4... and still IBF super middleweight champion... Lucian Bute.

That was a one-sided affair. Bute was able to control the fight and did whatever he wanted the entire time. Zuniga never landed a solid glove on him the entire fight.

They show the replay of the big left hook/uppercut to the body that crumpled Zuniga. Farhood calls it the old solar plexus shot. Zuniga yelled when he was hit by it. He caught a slow count and managed to pull himself up at the count of 8. Eventually Bute just unleashed a lot of shots, most of them blocked with Zuniga's hands up, but he was getting touched too. Zuniga never tried to clinch and was unable to fire back, so that was it.

Farhood tells Bute there are no more questions about Round 12 of the Andrade fight.
Bute says he took Zuniga seriously and prepared hard for this fight.

Farhood says from the start everything was working.
Bute says he knew he was much faster and took advantage.

Did Bute see something that made him use that left uppercut?
He felt from the beginning that it would work, so he used it.

What's the next fight? Andrade?
Bute hopes Andrade wins his next fight so they can fight again and he can demonstrate that he is a better fighter than Andrade.

Posted by uatu