Lucian Bute vs. Andrea Di Luisa: Well, this weekend will be a busy one for the PBC because along with its Friday card it will also have a card on Saturday night on NBC Sports. That card is being headlined by a 10-round, light heavyweight bout between Lucian Bute (31-2, 24 KO) and Andrea Di Luisa (17-2, 13 KO). Bute has been out of action since January of 2014 when he lost to Jean Pascal, not only did he lose that fight but he took a pretty bad beating over 12 rounds. That loss came after Bute took two years off after beating Denis Grachev in 2012. As for Di Luisa he has no notable names on his resume and was busy in 2014 fighting three times. The reason Di Luisa's resume is void of big names is simple, he has never fought outside of his native Italy. While Italy is known for many things like great food, amazing mountains, and beautiful women, it is not known for producing good boxers. Bute is a southpaw with pretty good power and he likes to leave his lead hand floating about like he is ready to jab, but he doesn't pump that jab all that often. Instead Bute likes to wait to set up his powerful straight left hand. When Bute actually does jab he has a good one, he just doesn't use it enough. Bute also has a strong right hook and he can be dangerous even late in fights after seemingly losing most of the previous rounds. Di Luisa is an orthodox fighter and while he does have a nice jab most of his punches look very mechanical like he has to think about them while he is throwing them. He will also switch to southpaw at times and from that stance he becomes even more mechanical. While Di Luisa's punches are short, especially his left hook, they don't come in very fast. His best punch besides the jab may be his straight right hand but he may need more than that to beat Bute. Also, defense is a problem for Di Luisa whose two career losses have both come by the way of knockout. This fight may be competitive early but Bute will dominate late and get the 10th round stoppage victory.
Eleider Alvarez vs. Isidro Ranoni Prieto: The co-feature of Saturday's card will feature to relatively unknown fighters in Eleider Alvarez (17-0, 10 KO) and Isidro Ranoni Prieto (24-0-3, 20 KO). The two pugilists are scheduled to go 12 rounds in the light heavyweight division and both usually have knockouts on the mind. While neither fighter has faced any top tier talent the resume of Alvarez is much more impressive than Prieto's. Alvarez has faced some decent veterans and other fighters with pretty good records. Meanwhile, Prieto has faced some fighters with pretty ugly records, like every fighter does, but Prieto's three draws have come against fighters with records of 4-0-1, 6-4-1, and 4-3 which does not bode well for him going forward. Alvarez is an orthodox fighter with a solid jab and he will sometimes turn it over and throw it as a weak left hook when he doesn't want to put much on it. Along with those punches Alvarez will also throw a nice looking straight right hand and a wild overhand right with a lot behind it. While Alvarez does have some decent pop on his punches he usually prefers to fight from the outside and really likes to work his jab and move. Prieto is also an orthodox fighter and he too has a busy jab although he doesn't really snap the punch out there. Prieto does have a nice right hand he likes to bang to the body and he can drop opponents with his short left hook or right hand. Also, Prieto usually likes to fight on the inside so whoever controls the distance of the fight should come out on top. Alvarez will look to jab and move and stay on the outside while Prieto will be looking to get inside and go to the body but Alvarez will be the one who is able to control the distance and he will get the majority decision win.
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