On Saturday night the “Premier Boxing Champions” series continues on NBC Sports from the Bell Centre in Montreal with a card headlined by the return of former IBF World Super Middleweight Champion Lucien Bute. Fighting for the first time in a year and a half, Bute faces Italy’s Andrea Di Luisa of Italy.
Bute will be fighting at light heavyweight in this 10-round bout, and he comes in a big favorite at (-3200), with the come back on Di Luisa paying at (+1600). The over/under is at 8.5 rounds with the over paying (+140) and the under returning at (-160). A few years back, Bute was 30-0 overall and he had held the IBF Super Middleweight belt through nine title defenses over four years to establish himself as one of the top names in boxing.
In 2012 he took his first loss, getting stopped by Carl Froch in the fifth round. Bute then won a comeback fight half a year later, but was away from the ring for more than a year following that win before returning to face Jean Pascal, where he took a loss in 12 rounds, and this fight is his return after being off for 18 months.
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Also on the “PBC” broadcast is the light heavyweight 12-rounder pitting undefeated Eleider Alvarez (17-0) against Isidro Ranoni Prieto (24-0-3). Right now, the books have Prieto paying (+1200) as the underdog, with Alvarez paying (-1900).
Below are additional lines posted for this coming weekend:
Light Flyweight 10 rounds – Saturday – Fort McDowell, Arizona
Juan Palacios +1500
Giovani Segura -3750
Notes: Former World Light Flyweight Champion Giovani Segura (32-4-1) returns after almost a year off to face Juan Palacios (29-5-2). Palacios has gone (0-2-2) in his last four fights as Segura is taking a safe fight for his return to active duty.
Heavyweight 10 rounds – Sunday – Krasnodar, Russia
Kertson Manswell +5000
Vyacheslav Glazkov -15500
Notes: Glazkov (20-0-1) is the highly touted prospect who has not fought in Russia in almost three years. Fighting abroad he has had success, beating the likes of Derric Rossy and Steve Cunningham and earning a draw with Malik Scott. Manswell is a journeyman type who is there to get Glazkov rounds but is not expected to do much more than that.
