Lucian Bute

Personal life

Lucian Bute was born on February 28, 1980 in Pechea, Galaţi County, Romania. After fighting for the Romanian national team as an amateur, winning multiple titles in both his homeland and abroad, Bute relocated to Montreal, Canada.

He also holds Canadian citizenship as of 2012.

Amateur career

As an amateur, Bute won the bronze medal at the 1999 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Houston, Texas and the gold medal at the 2001 Francophone Games. Bute also represented Romania at the 2003 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Bangkok, Thailand as a middleweight, where he was defeated and eliminated from the 2003 World Amateur Boxing Championship by the current middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin with a superb knockout at round 4. Before KO Golovkin, who won 2003 World Amateur Boxing Championship, was outpointing Bute with 13 points.

1999 World Amateur Championship results

2003 World Amateur Championship results

Professional career

Lucian Bute turned pro in 2003. On September 11, 2014, Bute announced that he would be trained by Fredie Roach. He was previously trained by Stéphan Larouche, who also trained former world champions Éric Lucas and Leonard Doroftei.

IBF super-middleweight champion

On June 15, 2007, Bute faced super middleweight contender and former Olympian Sakio Bika at the Bell Centre in Montreal in an elimination bout for the IBF title. Bute beat Bika by unanimous decision (116-111, 118-109, 118-109) and, as a result, he got his shot at the IBF Super Middleweight Champion Alejandro Berrio on October 19, 2007. Bute beat Berrio via TKO in the 11th round. With this victory, Bute became the third professional boxing world champion of Romania in its short history after the fall of communism after Leonard Doroftei and Mihai Leu and also the third champion in InterBox's history after Eric Lucas and Dorin.

Bute vs. Andrade and last-round controversy

On October 24, 2008, Bute defeated Mexico's Librado Andrade by unanimous decision but the end of the fight was marred with controversy. Andrade became Bute's mandatory challenger by defeating Robert Stieglitz. While Bute dominated his opponent through most of the fight, he nearly lost the title when he was knocked down by Andrade with two seconds left in the 12th and final round. When the referee, Marlon B. Wright, reached the eight count, the bell sounding the end of the match rang. However, the referee stopped the count temporarily when he signaled Andrade to return to his corner.

Bute vs. Zúñiga

Bute defeated three-time world title challenger Fulgencio Zúñiga on March 13, 2009. In round four, Bute knocked Zúñiga down with a left uppercut to the body. Zúñiga got up, but Bute continued the assault, eventually leading to a stoppage by the referee.

Bute vs. Andrade II

On November 29, 2009, Lucian Bute fought Andrade in a rematch and won with a fourth-round KO at Colisee Pepsi in Quebec City, Canada. Bute retained his IBF Super Middleweight title. The first three rounds saw Andrade as the aggressor and Bute played the role of counter-puncher, as had been the case in the first fight. HBO's unofficial scorecard had Bute up 30-27 after the 3rd round. In round 4, Bute sliped an overhand right from Andrade and landed a heavy left hand to the jaw sending him heavily to the canvas. Andrade beat the count but was soon caught by a left hook to the body that sent him down for the count at 2:57 of round 4.

Bute vs. Miranda, Brinkley

On April 17, 2010, Bute stopped Edison Miranda at 1:22 of the third round to retain his IBF Super Middleweight title in Montreal in front of nearly 15,000 fans. Miranda lost the first two rounds and he was knocked out during the third round with a left uppercut to the jaw. Miranda got back on his feet but the referee decided to stop the fight seconds after, so the result was a technical knockout.

On October 15, at the Bell Centre in Montréal, IBF Super Middleweight Champion Lucian Bute scored an impressive ninth round KO over mandatory challenger Jesse Brinkley. It was mostly a tactical fight until Bute dropped Brinkley with a left uppercut to the body in round five. Brinkley barely beat the count. Bute floored Brinkley for the second time in round eight and knocked him out with an uppercut in round nine. It was Bute's sixth title defense.

Bute vs. Magee

Bute dominated and stopped European Super Middleweight Champion Brian Magee in the 10th round in a mostly one-sided fight at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Magee showed incredible heart throughout and had some good moments in the earlier rounds. However, Bute wore Magee down, knocking him down three times – once in the 6th, another time in the 7th and a final time in the 10th. Bute won the fight with an uppercut in the 10th round. The bout was stopped at 2:04 of the round. The fight took place on March 19, 2011. This was Bute's seventh successful defense in a row.

Bute vs. Mendy

Bute successfully defended his IBF Super Middleweight title for the eighth time in a row in Romania on 9 July 2011 against the previously unbeaten Jean-Paul Mendy of France. The Frenchman was the IBF's number one contender and the mandatory challenger. This was Bute's first defense in Romania and his second fight there since 2005. The event took place at Romexpo and Bute won in the fourth round by knockout.

Bute vs. Johnson

Bute defeated Glen Johnson (51-15-2, 35 KOs) via unanimous decision at Québec City's Colisée Pepsi. The judges scorecards read 119-109 and 120-108 twice.

Bute vs. Froch

The IBF officially enforced Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KOs) as Bute's number one mandatory. The fight, billed as No Easy Way Out, took place on 26 May 2012 in Froch's hometown of Nottingham. Despite being the overwhelming underdog with bookmakers, critics and fans around the world, Froch dominated Bute throughout the fight to become the IBF Super Middleweight Championship via TKO in round five.

Bute vs. Grachev

On November 3, 2012, in his first fight since his loss to Froch, Bute fought Denis Grachev for the latter's NABF light heavyweight title. The bout took place in Montreal, Quebec. Despite strong opposition from Grachev, who was very aggressive throughout the fight, Bute was still able to not only narrowly out-box Grachev in a majority of the rounds (including a huge rally in the twelfth and final round that saw him land punches filled with loads of power over and over again on Grachev), but land the harder punches throughout the fight and was able to win the fight via unanimous decision. Unofficial ringside scorer, Russ Anber, scored the fight: 118-112, for Bute.

Bute vs. Pascal, Di Luisa

It was announced that Bute would fight Jean Pascal on May 25, 2013, in Montreal, Quebec. Bute would be making his first defense of his NABF light heavyweight championship, and the winner of the fight would become the WBC Diamond Champion in the class. However, on May 8, 2013, Bute was forced to pull out of the fight due to an injury that required surgery to remove bone fragments from his left hand. The fight was rescheduled for January 18, 2014. Pascal ended up winning the fight by unanimous decision 117-110, 117-111 and 116-112.

On August 15, 2015, coming off a 19-month layoff due in part to a back injury, Lucian Bute displayed little signs of ring rust as he stopped Andrea Di Luisa in four one-sided rounds.

Bute vs. DeGale

In mid-2015, it was announced that Bute would take part in a title fight against IBF super-middleweight champion James DeGale. The fight was DeGale's first defence of the IBF belt, and took place in Bute's adopted home-town of Quebec on 28 November 2015. After 12 rounds, the fight went to the judge's scorecards, and DeGale was awarded a unanimous decision; 116-112, 117-111, 117-111. Despite suffering the third loss of his career, Bute emerged with credit from what several commentators described as an exciting fight.

Bute vs. Jack

On Labor Eve 2016, Bute was named as the replacement for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to challenge Badou Jack for the WBC Super Middleweight Championship. The bout was declared a majority draw and, as such, Bute failed to capture the title. This would also mean Bute's first draw in his entire boxing career.

On May 27, 2016 Bute tested positive for a banned substance ostarine, which is not an anabolic steroid but is said to increase stamina and recovery ability and produce similar results. It has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency banned list since 2008. His B sample came back on August 12, just like his A sample showed in late May, it was positive again for the banned substance.

Bute denied having knowingly taken a banned substance. The Washington commission, following its investigation, went along with Bute's assertion that he ingested the substance due to contamination of nutritional supplements prescribed by Bute's conditioning trainer and created by a laboratory in California.

Subsequently, Bute was allowed to resume his career after a six-month suspension and a $50,000 fine. In-depth analyses has demonstrated beyond all doubt that the positive result of the drug test was due to contamination of nutritional supplements. On April 24, 2017, the DC commission changed the outcome of the fight to a disqualification win in favour of Jack.

Bute vs. Álvarez

Following the two super middleweight world title challenges, Bute announced he would move back up to the light heavyweight division. On December 8, 2016 promoter Yvon Michel announced a deal had been agreed for Bute to fight undefeated light heavyweight contender and WBC #1 ranked fighter Eleider Álvarez on February 24, 2017 at the Centre Videotron in Quebec, Canada. At the time the fight was made, Álvarez had a scheduled fight with Norbert Dabrowski on December 10, which he won and a win over Bute would put him in line for a WBC title match against Adonis Stevenson in 2017. Bute lost the fight via 5th round stoppage in a fairly competitive fight.