IBF 168-pound world champion and hometown favorite Lucian Bute weighed in at 167.4 pounds and challenger Fulgencio Zuniga tipped the scales at 167.7 pounds in front of a packed, standing-room-only crowd during Thursday’s weigh in at La Cage Aux Sports in Montreal, Canada. La Cage Aux Sports is adjacent to the Bell Centre, home of the NHL’s Montreal Canadians and site of Friday night’s world championship fight on ShoBox: The New Generation live at 11 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the west coast).
Bute is making his third defense of the 168-pound title he won with an 11th-round TKO over Alejandro Berrio on Oct. 19, 2007, in Montreal, where the defending champion’s last 11 fights have taken place.
Last Oct. 24 in Montreal on ShoBox, Bute dominated the initial 11-plus rounds against Librado Andrade but fell apart late and was brutally knocked down in the final seconds. Visibly shaken and hurt, Bute barely made it to his feet, but he beat the referee’s “10-count” to retain his belt on a lopsided decision.
Bute (23-0, 18 KOs) did not depart the ring with the look of a winner, which is a reason he must be admired for coming back so quickly against a determined, dangerous slugger like Colombia’s Zuniga (22-3-1, 19 KOs), who is no stranger to hostile environments and whose only defeats were to world champions.