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Lucian Bute has withdrawn from his May 25 bout with Jean Pascal after injuring his hand in training, according to Pascal's promoter Yvon Michel. The fight is officially to be rescheduled for now, but there is a possibility Bute will take an interim bout in the meantime.
Bute vs Pascal was going to be a major, major fight in Montreal, as the two are the biggest draws in the city, which is one of the sport's best. Bute (31-1, 24 KO) went 1-1 last year, losing to Carl Froch and beating Denis Grachev. Pascal (27-2-1, 16 KO) sat out from May 2011 until December 2012, when he returned to defeat Aleksy Kuziemski.
HBO was set to televise the fight, but the network will still have the Carl Froch-Mikkel Kessler rematch from the UK on that date.
One figures that Bute-Pascal will, indeed, be rescheduled, as there's a lot of money on the table for this fight, and there's really no bigger fight for either of them. Pascal already passed over a rematch with Chad Dawson to take this fight, and Bute did the same with a Froch rematch that he had the contractual right to take.