The Montreal Gazette reports (link via BoxingScene.com) that 140-pound contender Herman Ngoudjo will be without trainer Howard Grant this Friday night in Montreal when he fights Juan Urango for the vacant IBF junior welterweight title. Grant has been suspended until the end of March for shoving referee Marlon B. Wright after the controversial finish to the Bute-Andrade fight in October. Grant also trains Librado Andrade, of course, and that fight took place in Montreal, too.

Whether you thought Wright's officiating sucked or not, and I certainly did (not even so much the result being Bute winning, but the way Wright handled it all), rules are rules, and you can't go around shoving officials. These are the consequences, and the commission made the right call.

Ngoudjo (17-2, 9 KO) lost a good fight and close decision last January against Paulie Malignaggi, then the IBF titleholder, and followed that with a summer win over Souleymane M'baye on ESPN2. Ngoudjo's other loss was a close but in my opinion clear decision (like the Malignaggi fight) against Jose Luis Castillo. That same night as Ngoudjo's loss to Castillo, Urango (20-1-1, 16 KO) lost to Ricky Hatton. His draw came against Mike Arnaoutis in 2004, and he's currently on a three-fight win streak, including his brutal knockout of Carlos Wilfredo Vilches last April, which was his last fight.

It's a pretty interesting fight for the title Malignaggi vacated in order to fight Hatton in November, and we'll have live, round-by-round coverage and scoring on Friday night. We don't do a ton of ESPN cards live, but this is a fairly significant one, and more than worth watching.

I realize this is rambling, semi-incoherent, and probably doesn't even make a lot of sense if you didn't see the fight. For that, I apologize. But I am madder than hell about how this fight finished.

I am going to try to keep this clean because I know people read at work, I know there's a chance kids read this blog, and because I only curse during the heat of the moment of a fight. That's the pure boxing nut in me coming out. I certainly let loose at the end of tonight's main event in the round-by-round in the post below.

Let's be all Quentin Tarantino-y and start at the end.

Steve Farhood: "Do you feel you were cheated?"

Librado Andrade: "Oh, yes!"

What happened in Montreal tonight ruined an amazing finish to a good fight, one that had featured Lucian Bute -- who did nothing wrong tonight and is a hell of a fighter -- outclassing the tough, workmanlike Librado Andrade.

Bute peppered with rights and lefts all night, and lost only one round before the final three minutes. He stung the seemingly-indestructible Andrade on numerous occasions. He fought great. He largely cut Andrade off, didn't let him get more than one shot at any given moment, and did exactly what he's known for doing. He boxed beautifully.

But in the final moments of this fight, in a GREAT 12th round with Andrade going for broke, Bute exhausted, and finally floored with a massive right hand, Montreal referee Marlon B. Wright disgraced boxing with an historically awful display.

First of all, and nobody's even talking about this, Bute was held up by the ropes twice before he finally went down.

A Montreal referee. A Montreal fighter. A Montreal fight.

I'm not one to start the boxing conspiracy theories or the favoritism B.S., but if this one doesn't stink to you, I don't know what to tell you. Bute collapsed under the pressure and was knocked out. A proper count and he does not get up. Instead, Librado Andrade is punished for standing three or four feet away from a neutral corner, and Marlon B. Wright turns what should have been a ten count into almost a 30 count.

This cannot be excused, this cannot be brushed under the rug. While Marlon B. Wright tried to sell the story that it was Andrade that cost himself the knockout win (admitting Andrade should have had a knockout win in the process), don't buy the bridge, folks. Andrade deserved a knockout win tonight.

This was Marlon B. Wright's fifth world title fight as a referee. Let's hope it's his last. Joe Cortez, you've got some competition.

To say I'm disgusted by this finish is putting it mildly. It's not a black eye for boxing, it's an eye pulled out a la Dan Dority's big fight with The Captain in Deadwood. I'm not even saying Wright was anti-Andrade, really, or trying so much to help Bute. Maybe he was, but that's not the most bothersome aspect to me.

The worst part of it is that a referee in a world title fight lost control of himself, screamed at a fighter that had just knocked a man out, and let it dictate the outcome of the fight. Instead of fists doing the talking, an incompetent referee does it all.

Librado Andrade deserved better. Even Lucian Bute deserved better. Hey, maybe if the referee starts the count properly, Bute gets up quicker. He looked out to me, but never doubt a fighter's resolve to stand up, hold himself up as long as he has to, and retain a title belt he worked hard to get.

Boxing deserved better. Marlon B. Wright, may you never work a world class fight again in your life.

If you watched the first 11 rounds of this fight and missed the final three minutes, you wouldn't want to see a rematch. There'd be no need. And I think if they do it again, one of two things happens.

1. Bute outboxes and outclasses Andrade, because he's a far better boxer.

2. Andrade presses him harder, earlier, and looks to wear him out, because he knows he can put him on the canvas.

And all respect to both fighters, who showed class before, during, and after the fight. Andrade wants a rematch, but doesn't think he'll get it. Bute at least gives lip service to fighting Andrade again, if he "has to." I hate that these fighters have a big night in their careers marred this way, but it happened, and it should not be a two-day outrage followed up by nobody doing anything about it. Someone has to actually act on this and make it as right as it can be made. I'm not even saying anything drastic; order a rematch. Reprimand Wright for failing at his job. Something has to be done.

Knowing boxing and the sanctioning bodies, nothing will, and life will go on as if none of this ever went down.

We'll be here live starting at 11pm ET for what should be a highly entertaining super middleweight title fight between IBF titlist Lucian Bute and always-exciting challenger Librado Andrade. It's a two-fight card, and we'll have live round-by-round coverage and scoring for both bouts. Swing by and BS with us!

When Showtime made a deal to televise this Friday's IBF super middleweight title clash between Lucian Bute and Librado Andrade, diehard American boxing fans rejoiced, or at least they should have.

The fight, pitting titlist Bute and second-time 168-pound title challenger Librado Andrade, promises to be action-filled, and is an important clash in what has become an all-too-forgettable division since the departure of long-time champion Joe Calzaghe.

Bute (22-0, 18 KO) is part of the division's present and its future. At 28, he's only been a pro for five years, and he's beaten everyone in front of him. Still, though Bute is a big draw at the Bell Centre in his adopted hometown of Montreal, the Romanian "Le Tombeur" ("The Ladykiller") has yet to score a win that has made him known to many American fans.

It's not to say that this fight against Andrade will make him a household name, but it is, in all honesty, the biggest fight of his career. He did beat "Contender" season three champion Sakio Bika in June 2007, following that up with a win over highlight reel slugger/knockout victim Alejandro Berrio in October, gaining Berrio's IBF super middleweight title with an electric 11th round TKO. His first defense came in February of this year, as he dropped an ancient William Joppy in the 10th.

Can he knock out the 30-year old Andrade? Can anyone?

Bute can punch, and he can box. He's a skilled fighter and appears to have the natural tools to outclass Andrade, much the way Mikkel Kessler did in 2007, when he shut Andrade out over 12 brutal rounds of one-sided, non-stop action.

But Andrade is a machine. He may have the best chin in boxing, and that's not hyperbole.

To watch Andrade (27-1, 21 KO) take punishment is to marvel at his ability to do so. He absorbs powerful shots without so much as a stumble. While he was knocked down against Yusaf Mack in an entertaining brawl last year, it came on a true haymaker, a shot that shouldn't have landed but caught Andrade punching and off-guard. He shook it off as if nothing had happened, and came back to stop Mack in the seventh.

He followed that war with a back-and-forth slugfest against Robert Stieglitz in an eliminator underneath Casamayor-Katsidis this past March. Andrade and Stieglitz traded momentum, but it was Andrade who was able to keep the punishment coming and best able to withstand that coming back at him from his opponent, and Stieglitz was stopped in the eighth round.

Not only is Andrade double-tough, which was apparently enough when Mikkel Kessler savagely beat on him but couldn't so much as knock him down, but he's an all-action offensive fighter, to boot. Andrade has never met an exchange he didn't want to turn into all-out warfare. He's never met an opponent he felt could hang with him if he pressed it back-and-forth.

In short, he's a one-speed fighter: straight ahead, hard and fast.

The one time we've seen Andrade beaten, it was a thorough and decisive loss, but at the end of the night, no matter how impressed you were with Mikkel Kessler, there was no doubt that Andrade impressed in his own way. His ability to roll his head with punches meant that he took 36 minutes of hard punches and came out of it looking fresh and nearly untouched. He didn't bleed, he didn't swell, he didn't bruise. Is he a robot?

If Bute is truly the class of fighter we know Kessler to be, he should be able to put on a similar performance. Andrade, for all his strengths, is flawed in crucial areas. He doesn't have great hand speed, he doesn't have one-punch power, and he doesn't move his head, period. Andrade is perfectly happy to get hit, knowing he can take the shot, hoping to land back in volumes.

On paper, this looks like the most exciting fight on the docket right now. And while it's not nearly as big as Oscar-Manny or Joe-Roy, you can bet that the great fans at the Bell Centre will make it feel as though it is. One of boxing's best cities will get a fight worth cheering for, and we'll be here with live, round-by-round coverage and scoring on Friday night. We hope you'll join us for what promises to be a slugfest, for as long as it lasts.

Cedric Kushner's Gotham Boxing ran another show tonight at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, N.H., featuring Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin and Ronald Hearns, son of the legendary Thomas "Hitman" Hearns. Both Quillin and Hearns won stay-busy fights, as expected.

I find both guys to be fairly interesting. Quillin is a personal favorite, as he's originally from Michigan, though he's based in Brooklyn and has fought all but two of his career fights in New York City.

He improved to 20-0 with his 15th knockout, stopping "The Punching Policeman" Sam Hill in the 10th round.

The result is moderately troubling. Quillin said after the fight, "I should get credit for beating a guy like that. He’s very durable. I almost hurt my hands I hit him so hard."

Truth is,  Hill had been knocked out five times entering the fight, so his durability is very questionable, and frankly, Quillin's power is starting to become a bit of a mystery itself. He went ten full rounds with a jelly-legged, washed-up Antwun Echols in April, and ten more rounds in Dionisio Miranda two months later. Echols had no business standing tall for ten rounds past his own toughness, but any fighter with a finishing touch would've put him away that night.

I still quite like Quillin, because I think he's got solid boxing skills, and he's only 25. He's still got maturing to do, and he's keeping himself very busy, with this being his fourth fight in 2008. But if he gets knocked off by a tough veteran, it won't shock me. I'm rooting for him, and hoping to see more of him on TV.

The 29-year old Hearns is now 20-0 (16) following a first-round TKO of Alexander Quiroz (14-7-1, 12 KO). The official time was 2:10. Hearns talked about establishing his jab and such, but it seems as though two minutes wouldn't be enough time to do that.

He also talked about the much-publicized fact that he only started fighting five years ago, when he was already 24 years old. It's a late start, but hardly unprecedented. I thought he showed awesome fire and grit in a June slugfest with Jose Gonzalez. Hearns will return on October 24th in Montreal against punchless Paul Clavette, on the undercard of Bute-Andrade.

Also on the card, U.S. Olympic alternate Danny O'Connor turned pro with a second-round TKO of Jose Guerrido.

[Thanks to Bob Trieger at Full Court Press for the results and quotes from the card.]