Stieglitz reportedly turns down fight with Bute, Cunningham signs with Sauerland
by Scott Christ on May 2, 2010 7:37 PM EDT
in Boxing News Analysis
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Per Ake Persson reported today that WBO super middleweight titlist Robert Stieglitz turned down a shot at IBF titlist Lucian Bute. Bute will fight on July 24 in Romania, but no opponent has been named. If the report is true, which the Stieglitz camp will either deny, "explain" or ignore soon enough, then that means that Bute's camp really did try to take just about the best fight they could right now. You can argue for Sakio Bika, but Bika is locked into a fight with Jesse Brinkley on May 28, with the winner getting a shot at Bute later this year.
It's kind of hard to figure out who Bute can fight right now. I don't think there's really anyone that will excite people, and it's made tougher by the fact that the fight's in Romania instead of Montreal. Brian Magee is currently the European titleholder, so maybe that could be an option, but Magee is 34 and has never been a true contender. Of course, they're not really going to get a true contender for a July 24 fight, so that might be irrelevant. Lots of European guys with shiny, empty records.
Honestly, you know what the best fight for him might be, strictly on paper? Jermain Taylor. It possibly makes no sense because Taylor might be flat-out finished physically, and I really doubt JT wants to go to Romania to fight Bute, and they probably don't want to pay an opponent like Taylor what he'll demand for a fight that isn't in Montreal even if Taylor is physically able to do it, but if you look at the super middleweights out there, he's among the best available options, assuming he's alright to fight again at some point.
In other news, Steve Cunningham made the wise decision and signed a contract with Sauerland Event. The best cruiserweight action is in Europe, Cunningham has fought over there before, and he doesn't mind doing it again. He already has a win over Marco Huck, the No. 2 cruiserweight in the world, but a rematch would be most welcome. The first fight was a good one, with Cunningham stopping Huck in the 12th round. Cunningham's career was grossly screwed up the last few years, and he's fought just once, off TV, since his Fight of the Year contender war with Tomasz Adamek in 2008. That's inexcusable. Glad to see Cunningham has gone to a promoter that will actually care about him and get him the fights he deserves.
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Taylor might just be the best option for Bute,
you’re absolutely right; however, I do still think that a good fight for both is Pavlik-Bute.
"The terror of the unforeseen is what the science of history hides, turning a disaster into an epic"
by Oli Goldstein on May 2, 2010 7:56 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
If anything it makes it more possible. Sauerland just wants to make money. They’re not Universum.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
tell me the difference if you would.
Universum wants to monopolize titles. Are they basically playing different strategies of the same game?
"Yes Gina, I am a Wise Cracker"
Kind of. Sauerland, I believe, will allow a fight like Cunningham-Huck to happen, because it makes sense and can make money. If they both fought for Universum I’d expect the company to try to get them both different alphabet titles and keep them away from each other.
Some reports lately are expecting Universum to fold, btw. So that’s a plus for boxing.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
Universum is near collapse. It probably won’t see September. Meanwhile, Sauerland has a lot of dates to fill with top fighters. Expect some incredible picking and choosing while some of the lesser names in the Universum banner (Stieglitz among them) head to the US.
by VirtualBalboa on May 3, 2010 8:55 AM EDT up reply actions
Universum won't disappear
It will just be greatly marginalized, like Main Events, Don King or Russell Peltz. There are lots of formerly great promoters still going at it on a smaller scale out there. Maybe they can still keep it together if they manage to pull a TV contract out of their butts, but the one they currently have is expiring soon and isn’t being renewed. Seems like Arena Box might be taking over as #2 in Germany, which probably makes boxing over there more corrupt if anything, but whatever.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Terrible but funny and thats why I love this site.
by Waldo Rastel on May 3, 2010 12:24 AM EDT up reply actions
Thanks SC
Glad that you followed up on this via my e mail to you yesterday.Hopefully Steiglitz will man up soon !!!
It's not a matter of "IF" the North will break you.It's a matter of "WHEN" the North will break you.For up here every year counts as two on the outside.
by Ghostman (Son of the Wolf) on May 3, 2010 7:08 AM EDT reply actions
I just read at Canadian Fightnews
that Chris Henry has offered to fight Bute in Romania but that fight would be at 175 pounds.
It's not a matter of "IF" the North will break you.It's a matter of "WHEN" the North will break you.For up here every year counts as two on the outside.
by Ghostman (Son of the Wolf) on May 3, 2010 7:57 AM EDT reply actions
I guess he's done it before
Henry went to Romania to fight Diaconu. Could be a decent fight. Bute’s fought at 175 enough before, and doesn’t have a mandatory to enforce. Maybe a fight up at 175 isn’t a bad idea, although frankly I don’t think the guys in the 6 – 15 range at LHW are any better than the guys in the 10 – 25 range at SMW.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Oh, and FWIW
I heard the offer to Stieglitz was for about 1 million Euro, so it’s not as if they gave him a crappy offer. It would have been a career high payday for Stieglitz. If they had been able to get a unification fight, HBO would have bought it and they were going to have a 4 million Euro budget according to Bute’s people.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
The other thing Cunningham, signing with Sauerland does
Is make it more feasible to have a cruiserweight super six. I’d heard that they were considering the possibility at one point, if the SMW one is successful. They’d need to wait a year, but this gives Sauerland 4 legitimate top cruisers – Cunningham, Huck, Yoan Pablo Hernandez and Alexander Frenkel.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
I would guess
that Pavlik doesn’t want any part of Bute.
Where is that fellow who was insisting that Bute “ducked” Stieglitz? It would be interesting to hear his thoughts on this debacle.
I had a very strong feeling that Stieglitz would not be put into a ring with Bute unless several guns were put to several heads, and it appears this is the case. Other than Bika, I think Bute will have to wait for the Super Six to sort itself before he can get a decent opponent.
Honestly, you know what the best fight for him might be, strictly on paper? Jermain Taylor.
I cannot agree with this statement for humanitarian reasons. If Taylor wants to mount some kind of gradual comeback, that’s okay by me. But putting him in with Bute right now would be throwing him to the lions.
"My God, kids today think that the laces are for tying up the gloves."
-- Fritzie Zivic
I cannot agree with this statement for humanitarian reasons. If Taylor wants to mount some kind of gradual comeback, that’s okay by me. But putting him in with Bute right now would be throwing him to the lions.
Well yeah but you toooootally ignored the thing I said after that about Taylor possibly being a wreck. Cherry-picked my statement! Hater.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
It’s really a shame that Miranda-Stieglitz fell through. Miranda would have had a shot at winning that fight, and if he did I’m sure he would have fought Bute next. It looks like Stieglitz’s next mandatory is going to be Allan Green, who’s obviously unavailable, so he won’t be forced to fight anyone good for a while. The next highest guy in the rankings is someone named Paul Smith.
knew I heard that 'Paul Smith' name before
Had to look it up: He was on Contender Season3, and beat David Banks (infamous recipient of a Miranda right hand that sent him through the ropes) but had to withdraw from the rest of the show due to a cut suffered in that fight.
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on May 3, 2010 3:37 PM EDT up reply actions
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