(Picture: Herby Whyne)

Lucian Bute (26-0 21KO) served notice that he considers himself the best there is at 168 pounds Saturday as he put on another sensational performance in front of 13,862 rabid fans at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

Bute destroyed Columbian born Edison Miranda (33-5 29KO), knocking out the heavy fisted contender at 1:22 of round three with an uppercut that served as the earliest exit to date for Miranda.

“I am the best there is at 168 pounds and I welcome all challengers,” said Bute moments after the fight, referring principally to Bernard Hopkins or anybody who wanted to challenge him for his IBF world title. The win was the 5th defense for the Romanian born Bute.

Miranda was stood up straight by a body shot in the third and the hard hitting southpaw kept the pressure on, delivering another body that the challenger standing with his hands on his hips inviting more. Bute took the invitation and RSVP’d with the telling left uppercut to end things.

“I can’t say I knew it for sure, but I saw it in his eyes. He made it look like I didn’t hurt him so I said; ‘now we’ll see.’

Both the uppercut and Miranda’s showboating when hurt were two things the Bute camp worked on while in training in Florida. “We said this guy is going to provide you with the opportunity to get knocked out by a good sharp uppercut,” said trainer Stephane Larouche after the fight. “You can ask both his sparring partners, Randy Griffin and Alejandro Berrio, he wobbled them both with that punch. That was the punch and it was only going to be a matter of time until he got his rhythm. We also knew he was going to drop his hand and clown a little bit, especially when he’s hurt, he always does that. I think we executed the plan quite good.”

(Fightnews.ca)

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Pics: Mike Greenhill