Ireland’s Brian Magee is being given little shot of upsetting champion Lucian Bute in Saturday’s IBF super middleweight title fight in Bute’s hometown of Montreal, but being an underdog and fighting an opponent in his hometown is nothing new for Magee.
The same thing happened 14 months ago when Magee went to Aarhus, Denmark, to take favored Mads Larsen and came away with the European title.
“I’ve been an away fighter all my life,” Magee said. “Fighting away from home and being an underdog is good experience to have under your belt. It’s not new for me to be an underdog, so I have to believe I can win here.”
Bute (27-0) will face Magee (34-3-1) in a battle of left-handers for the seventh defense of the IBF belt Bute won in 2007 with a victory over Alejandro Berrio. Bute is currently at -1200 with Magee at +600. The bout is live on Showtime on Saturday night. With strong local support, Bute has not fought outside of Canada in five years, while this is Magee’s first fight outside Europe.
Magee was very competitive in his three losses to good super middleweights Carl Froch, Robin Reid and Vitali Tsypko. But he should have crushed Tony Oakey but drew with him. Magee has won six in a row and nine of 10 since his loss to Froch in Super Six World Boxing Classic.
“Fighting for a world title in front of a huge television audience is something I’ve always dreamed of,” said Magee, who made the first defense of his European title in September, stopping Roman Aramian in Dublin.
The bout also marks the first for Bute since he signed a multi-fight agreement with Showtime last November, reportedly paying him as much as $2 million each time he steps in the ring. Assuming Bute takes care of business, as he should, he may fight Mikkel Kessler is next, followed by the winner of the Super Six tournament, which is staged by Showtime and resumes in May.
“It’s only the media that talks about [a possible fight with] Kessler, not me,” Bute said. “I’m only concentrating on Saturday night, Brian Magee, a good performance and a win. I’ll worry about Kessler and anybody else after I win this fight.
“The fact that Kessler is going to be ringside [on Saturday at the Bell Centre] is not going to affect my performance at all. I have a plan to win this fight. I’ll have a good performance and the fact that he’s ringside really doesn’t matter to me.”
Bute has won all but one of his title defenses by knockout, including four consecutive victories inside the distance. He is considered by many the class of the 168-pound weight division.
Related posts:
Boxing - Kelly Pavlik-Brian Vera fight now off (James Payton) 
0
Soccer - Arsenal will have no trouble vs. Bolton (James Payton) 0
NFL - Broncos already in big trouble at receiver for 2011? (James Payton) 0
MMA - Brian Foster ruled ineligible for Bellator debut (Ryan Kiosow) 0
Boxing - Boxing betting: Evander Holyfield back in ring Saturday (James Payton) 0
RSS
Google
MyYahoo!
MyMSN
NewsGator
BlogLines