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Cloutier’s Canada Corner
April Froch vs. Kessler Date Is
Bad News For Bute
By Daniel Cloutier
MONTRÉAL - The IBF championship committee should confirm
next Monday that the IBF-WBA super middleweight championship
opposing Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler, will be presented
April 27th in London. Bad news for Lucian Bute and InterBox.
Bute (31-1-0), a former IBF champion of the world, was
hoping to fight on the undercard of this show organized by
the Froch's promoter, Ed Hearn, but his chances are very
low. The southpaw from Montréal can not spar before the end
of March, because the surgery he got last Friday, to cure
tissues in the arch of his left eyebrow. Bute and InterBox
were hoping that the fight Froch-Kessler would happen May
25th.
Bute will be obliged to wait to the end of May to fight the
winner of the WBC elimination bout opposing Sakio Bika
(30-5-2), from Cameroun, and Nikola Sjekloca (25-0-0), from
Montenegro, February 16th at the Boardwalk Arena in Atlantic
City. A fight Bute-Bika or Bute-Sjekloca has good chances to
happen in Roumania. Bute wants to fight Bika or Sjekloca
before his marriage scheduled for June.
Bute believes that this bout will help his preparation for
his rematch with Froch, scheduled for next fall in Montréal.
Bute, who lost his IBF title to Froch May 26th in Nottingham
(TKO in less than five rounds), did not impress his fans
November 3rd in Montréal, when he won by unanimous decision
against the Russian Denis Grachev (12-1-1).
In fighting April 27th, Froch (30-2-0) and Kessler (46-2-0)
will respect and IBF rule, which requiring the deadline of
April 27th to sanction an unification titles bout.
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