It certainly wasn’t his best performance, but Lucian Bute got the job done tonight in Montreal, knocking Jesse Brinkley down three times en route to a ninth round stoppage.
Bute (27-0, 22 KO) put Brinkley down in the fifth round with a gorgeous body shot, then floored him in the eighth and finally once more in the ninth. Brinkley only survived the fifth round because he spit out his mouthpiece while on the ground, and beat the count. But if not for the time spent in the corner putting the mouthpiece back in and fixing the tape on his wrists, Bute probably would have finished off the Nevada native.
Brinkley (35-6, 22 KO) showed toughness, grit and heart, but in terms of class, he just wasn’t near Bute’s level. Bute had a big height advantage, had the home field advantage in Montreal, and when he really zeroed in, was at least two classes above the veteran and former “Contender” fighter. Brinkley definitely earned his paycheck tonight, though. He did come to win, but the battle was simply too uphill.
The talk now is that Bute will defend his IBF super bantamweight title at a 166-pound catchweight next year against Kelly Pavlik. Pavlik fights Brian Vera on November 13 at Cowboys Stadium, in the main support slot of the Pacquiao-Margarito pay-per-view. Bute is a rotten style ma
