By Bill Beacon, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL — Lucian Bute feels he's starting to be recognized as one of the world's top boxers, but he will need to knock off power-punching Edison Miranda to keep it going.
The U.S. specialty channel HBO will be in Montreal for the first time Saturday night to show the Bute-Miranda clash at the Bell Centre as a part of a twin bill with a middleweight battle in Atlantic City between U.S. star Kelly Pavlik and Sergio Martinez of Argentina.
It will be Bute's second bout in a row on the channel that is widely considered No. 1 in boxing, and which arranges and broadcasts fights of most of the biggest names in the sport, from Floyd Mayweather to Bernard Hopkins and Manny Pacquiao.
"I hope they keep showing my fights," the super-middleweight from Montreal said Wednesday. "We have to put a on a good show and remain champion.
"It was my dream to be champion and I made it after four years of work. Now I want to be on HBO many times. I want to make it to the boxing hall of fame. I want to retire unbeaten. I want to fight the biggest fighters in the world, the biggest names. Those are my goals. So I still have a lot to prove."
Bute first fought on HBO in November, when he scored a fourth-round TKO before a full house of 16,000 in Quebec City in his rematch with Librado Andrade, the iron-jawed American who had given him a scare with a late knockdown in their first meeting at the Bell Centre in October, 2008.
The southpaw Bute (25-0, 20 knockouts) will defend his International Boxing Federation 168-pound title for the fifth time when he faces Puerto Rico-based Miranda (33-4, 29 KOs), a tough righthander who compensates for limited skill with a thundering punches from both hands.
It was HBO that insisted on Miranda as the opponent for the entertainment value in placing the slick and highly skilled Bute against a power hitter.
"Miranda is a puncher and anything can happen with a puncher," said Bute's trainer, Stephan Larouche. "And they know that if he gets knocked out, he'll get knocked out hard, which is good for TV. He won't quit. He won't put a knee on the floor."
The 29-year-old Miranda has been working for nine months with veteran trainer Joe Goosen, who has coached stars like Shane Mosley and Diego Corrales. The plan is to add some boxing skills to Miranda's power and athleticism, but Larouche is skeptical.
"Once Bute sets up and gets comfortable, Miranda will go back to his old habits because he'll be getting hit left and right and think 'I'd better do something to hurt this guy,"' said Larouche.
"Lucian has a difficult style to fight against. He's like a big Pacquiao. He has a style that isn't conventional. You don't know what side he's going to throw from. You don't know what he's doing with his footwork. He plays distances well."
Miranda has fought many of the best at 160 and 168 pounds, including a 12-round loss to Andre Ward, a pair of losses to Arthur Abraham and a 2007 loss to Pavlik, along with wins over Allan Green and Howard Eastman. In his last fight in October, Miranda knocked out Francisco Sierra (20-3) in the first round.
Bute hopes to dispatch Miranda and then move onto bigger fish. There are reports Hopkins wants to fight him, and that Pavlik may want to move back up to 168 pounds to take him on.
Some felt Bute was slighted when the Showtime channel overlooked him while setting up its Super Six Series between super-middleweights, including Ward, Abraham and others, but his camp now feels he's done better cementing his relationship with HBO.
A Super Six bout between Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler in Denmark that was originally to be held on the same night as Bute-Miranda was moved to the following Saturday, perhaps to avoid head-to-head competition for viewers.
"For us not to be in the tournament probably turns out to be the best thing that could happen because HBO chose Lucian as the best 168-pounder," said Jean Bedard, who runs InterBox, Bute's promoter. "They moved Kessler-Froch - that's where you see the power of HBO."
Luis Barragan, director of programming for HBO Sports, said showcasing 30-year-old Bute was a natural.
"He's a sensational fighter and he's also very charismatic," he said. "And he's in that 168-pound class which has a lot of interesting fights in the future."
Barragan sees no problem selling Bute to an American audience even if the six-foot-two fighter is of Romanian origin and, while he has learned to speak fluent French, is still working on his English.
"A lot of our biggest stars don't speak much English," he said. "Manny Pacquiao didn't speak much English and now he's up there in the top three fighters - and personalities - in the world, not just fighters but personalities. Miguel Cotto is another. Eventually their charisma comes through."
Bute and Larouche recently returned from two months of intense training in Florida and feel they are ready.
Bedard expects a crowd of more than 12,000, which is far from a sellout. But he expects much of the revenue to come from pay per view sales. The bout is also to air two weeks later on TSN.
Copyright © 2010 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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