On Saturday night November 3rd, former IBF Super Middleweight champion Lucian Bute will take on undefeated Denis Grachev in a twelve round fight for the NABF Light Heavyweight championship. The card will be televised LIVE in the United States on WealthTV and will originate from the Bell Centre in Montreal.
Bute of Montreal has a record of 30-1 with twenty-four knockouts. He is the long reigning IBF Super Middleweight champion winning the belt in October of 2007 with a eleventh round knockout of Alejandro Berrio. Bute went on to defend the title nine times with wins over World Champion William Joppy, Brian Magee and Glen Johnson plus top challengers Librado Andrade (twice), Fulgencio Zuniga, Edison Miranda, Jesse Brinkley and Jean Paul Mendy.
This past May, Bute suffered his first career setback when he was stopped by three-time World champion Carl Froch. Bute needs a win to set up the highly anticipated rematch with Froch. But first he has to get by the upset minded and undefeated Grachev.
Grachev of San Diego, by way of Chaykovsky, Russia has a record of 12-0-1 with eight knockouts and is coming off the biggest win of his career when he stunned highly ranked and undefeated Ismayl Sillakh (17-0) this past April 27th. Grachev has defeated two previously undefeated fighters, namely Azea Augustama and Valdine Biosse (9-0), in a fourth round stoppage.
WealthTV is coming off a strong trifecta weekend in professional boxing. The three card weekend kicked off Friday with a classic IBF Super Middleweight elimination bout that saw Adonis Stevenson score a sensational twelfth round knockout over Donovan George. Saturday saw the explosive first round knockout for David Price over former Audley Harrison that was the battle of British Olympians and topped off the evening with 2008 Olympic Gold Medal winner James DeGale scoring a twelve round unanimous decision over Hadilla Mohoumadi.
WealthTV has previously announced that on October 27th, top American Heavyweight Franklin “Yah Yah”Lawrence will take on battle tested Dominick Guinn and on November 17th in a bout in what many are predicting a “Fight Of The Year “Candidate as WBO Flyweight champion Brian Viloria and WBA Flyweight champion Hernan “Tyson” Marquez will do battle in a much anticipated unification bout.
Network president Charles Herring stated, “Our boxing staff is searching the world for the best upcoming and proven fighters. We’re pleased to be delivering on our commitment to offering boxing fans the highest quality bouts free to WealthTV viewers without any premium channel like associated fee. We anticipate upwards of 40 to 60 live world-class boxing events on the network for 2013, a run rate we are currently achieving.”
The Bute v. Grachev fight can be seen on Wealth TV nationally on Verizon FiOS TV channel 169 and 669 in HD, AT&T U-Verse TV channels 470 and 1470 in HD, along with over 100 cable systems across the country as well as on line viewing on numerous connected devices and via www.wealthtv.com.
