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News & Notes From Canada
Bute vs. Miranda Week In Full
Gear
Lucian's Next Defense Could Be In His Homeland
By Daniel Cloutier
This Tuesday the Canadian media was treated to an open
training session with IBF Super Middleweight Champ Lucian
Bute and his challenger Edison Miranda. Bute told me, “My
preparation has never been better, even better than I was
preparing for the rematch with Librado Andrade. I made the
most part of my training in Miami, like last fall, but we
worked more on some details which could be important during
the Miranda fight. I know that I will be extremely energetic
this Saturday. I know that I am a busier fighter than
Miranda and I know that he has stone fists. But I am
planning to dominate every round by using my speed, my
mobility & my brain. I know that Miranda is especially
dangerous in the first half of each bout so I will need to
be careful in the first half, but Miranda will be in trouble
if he starts slowing down after the sixth round.”
In regard to how he feels about this fight in Montreal Bute
said, “I am very excited because of two things: it will be
my first fight in my home, the Bell Centre, since about a
year, & HBO will televise my fight for the second time in a
row. I really want to impress my fans and the HBO people.
Stéphan (Larouche) and I have prepared a specific strategy
for this bout, and it is a plan that I really like!”
In other news coming out of the hotbed of boxing The
InterBox group has confirmed the name of the fighters who
will be on the undercard of this HBO boxing show Saturday
evening at Bell Centre.
Renan St-Juste (20-1-1), a middleweight ranked 8th by the
IBF, will face the Colombian Dionisio Miranda, who lost by
K.O. in the 10th round to the Russian Roman Karmazin last
Juanuary in Glendale.This will be the main preliminary bout.
It will be a NABA Nord-American & WBC Americas Continental
championship.
It is absolutely sure that Sakio Bika & Jesse Brinkley will
fight for the IBF Super Middle eliminator May 28th in Quebec
City, in the semi-main event just before Eric Lucas and
Librado Andrade. The InterBox group is expecting a pretty
big crowd in Quebec as both Lucas and Andrade are so popular
in the Quebec Province.
The winner of the Bika-Brinkley elimination bout, is
supposed to meet Lucian Bute August 14th in Bucarest, if of
Lucian is still champion after his Saturday night bout
against Edison Miranda. HBO is considering televising a
doubleheader August 14th: Bute against Bika or Brinkley from
Romania, and Jean Pascal against Chad Dawson at Bell Centre
in a Light Heavyweight Title showdown. It is already
confirmed that Pascal will defend his WBC light heavyweight
championship at Bell Centre August 14th against Dawson.
Jean Bédard mentioned that he already was planning to
promote Bute-Bika or Bute-Brinkley in July in Bucarest, but
he will certainly accept the HBO proposition. InterBox wants
so much to increase Bute’s popularity in the U.S.A., and of
course if this is what HBO wants then Bedard wants it as
well.
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