If you’ve followed his career, you already know this. Steven Butler has always been one win away from a major fight and, Thursday night, the Montrealer delivered his side of the bargain by stopping the son of Cameroon, Stephane Fondjo, in the 9th round of a trench war presented at the Montreal Casino.
But if you’ve neither followed his career nor watched the fight, the result of the duel between Butler (37-5-1, 31 KO) and Fondjo (14-2-1, 9 KO) could be misleading…
Even though “Bang Bang” had dynamite in his fists, his opponent showed resilience and a tremendous amount of heart. Fondjo dragged Butler into deep waters. After being dropped twice, the Cameroonian persevered and had some excellent moments.
Should we be worried about seeing Butler face a higher-level opponent?
Yes and no. If there’s one thing you can’t reproach the Quebec boxer for, it’s his determination. In the past, Steven has suffered heartbreaking defeats on the international scene. But one way or another, he has always found a way to bounce back and put himself back in a favorable position. That’s more or less what he just did.
By winning, Steven Butler now finds himself in familiar territory. He may not have whiskers or boots, but what he definitely has is 9 lives.
EOTTM has shown it’s not afraid to match two fighters from the same stable.
Steven Butler was supposed to face Erik Bazinyan (32-1-1, 23 KO) three times…
Three times it fell through.
After three strikes, Bazinyan is suspended.
After three victories, Butler is back in business.
So what do we take away from the “Bazinyan debacle”? One thing. Three times rather than one, Steven Butler was ready to do anything to climb quickly in the world super-middleweight rankings.
Photo: Facebook – Steve Butler vs Stephane Fondjo
And it works out well, because even without Bazinyan, a certain Wilkens Mathieu (15-0, 10 KO) holds two belts that could offer Butler exactly what he wants. At this stage of their careers, this fight makes sense. Wilkens would get the chance to add a respected name to his résumé, and Steven would get the chance to pull a trick out of his hat while placing himself among the top WBC fighters.
It would be a 100% local and 100% EOTTM fight. We can almost guarantee the fans would show up.
Butler may be 30 years old, but time is starting to fly in his case. He’s been in the professional ranks for more than 11 years. If he wants to aspire to the highest honors, he won’t be able to take the long way around.
“Straight to the point,” as the slogan said on the poster of the defunct trilogy.
Jhon Orobio: Elite Status, and Urgently So!
In a different frame of mind, Jhon Orobio (16-0, 14 KO) finds himself in a place that is entirely new to him — the major leagues.
Context #1: “El Tigre” surprised every boxing fan by stopping former world champion Xolisani Ndongeni (33-8, 19 KO) in the 2nd round.
Context #2: the African had gone the full 10 rounds with Devin Haney, and more importantly, with other big punchers like Raymond Muratalla and Ernesto Mercado.
Most boxing fans already knew Jhon was a very good fighter. However, Thursday night he proved what class he truly belongs to. He treated his opponent like a simple object placed in his path.
We can therefore agree that Jhon Orobio no longer needs to face mid-level opponents. At only 22 years old, it’s already time to put him in a major fight.
Is it possible? You’d have to be crazy to think otherwise…
Orobio is a Ring Magazine ambassador.
That means Turki Al-Sheikh sees big things for him…
And when it comes to their grand projects, the Saudis rarely have trouble financing them.
Photo: Facebook – John Orobio vs Xolisani Ndongeni
