Bute, Beterbiev and Eleider Alvarez possible for April 2 in Quebec

Former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (32-3, 25 KOs) is being lined up for a headlining fight on April 2 at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City, Quebec. The opponent for the 35-year-old Bute is still to be determined.
Also being talked about for the undercard is unbeaten light heavyweights Artur Beterbiev (9-0, 9 KOs) and Eleider Alvarez (19-0, 10 KOs) in separate fights. The opponents for those two fighters is still unknown.

All three fighters are managed by Al Haymon, so it’ll be a wait and see situation whether they in fact wind up on the card. Hopefully, Haymon matches them against quality opponents rather than weaker fighters.

Former three-time world title challenger George Groves is being mentioned as a potential opponent for Bute. Groves recently beat Andrea Di Luisa by a 5th round stoppage last month. Di Luisa is the same fighter that
Bute stopped in the 4th round last year in August.

Beterbiev suffered a shoulder injury in training late last year, and he’s been out of action since his 7th round knockout win over Alexander Johnson in June of 2015. Beterbiev, 31, is currently rehabbing his shoulder, and he’s expected to be ready to continue fighting by March or April.

Bute recently fought for a world title against IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale last November, and lost by a narrow 12 round decision. It was a fight that some boxing fans felt should have been scored a draw. Bute proved that he’s not over-the-hill with that fight in giving a great performance.

In the end, Bute didn’t throw enough punches to get the decision. DeGale was landing the cleaner shots in the last six rounds of the contest. Bute’s performance keeps things going for him with his career. Now what #14 IBF Bute needs is a good victory over a solid contender to get him ranked higher by the sanctioning bodies, because it’s unlikely that he’ll be getting another world title shot if he stays ranked near the bottom of the IBF’s rankings. Bute needs to get ranked at No.1 by the IBF and the other sanctioning bodies so that he can force a world title shot.

Eleider Alvarez defeat Isaac Chilemba by a 12 round majority decision in his last fight in November. Alvarez, 31, did not look good in that fight, and he fortunate to get the victory. If Chilemba had a little more punching power, then I think he would have gotten the victory. Alvarez is now the WBC mandatory challenger to WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson. Alvarez’s promoter Yvon Michel wants to get him one more fight before he challenges for the title against WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson in 2016.