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Cloutier’s Canada Corner
Divorce Between Lucian Bute & Showtime
By Daniel Cloutier
MONTRÉAL The Interbox promoter, Jean Bédard, confirmed the
divorce between the Montrealer Lucian Bute and the network
Showtime. Bute (30-1-0) signed a contract with Showtime in
2010 for a total of six bouts. But Showtime have telivised
only three Bute's fight.
At the end of the “Super Six” tournament, Bute, who was IBF
super middleweight champion of the world at that time,
challenged the “Super Six” champion, the Californian Andre
Ward. Ward (26-0-0), the WBA and WBC champion of the world,
gave a response to Bute, “If you want to fight me, first you
will have to fight one of the top boxers of the division
(Carl Froch or Mikkel Kessler).”
Finally, InterBox made a deal with Ed Hearn (the Froch's
promoter) to organize a fight between Froch and Bute. The
fight was supposed to be presented in Montréal last spring,
but Showtime refused to televise it. With the result that
the fight moved in Nottingham, England. Showtime said, “We
are not interested in Froch-Bute. It is Ward-Bute or
nothing.”
Bute was planning to beat Froch in Nottingham, and challenge
Ward again... but the plan collapsed. May 26th at the
Nottingham Arena, Froch (29-2-0) became the new IBF champion
in beating Bute by TKO in less than five rounds.
From that point, it was just a matter of time before
Showtime confirmed a break off with the contract with Bute.
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