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When Russ Anber confirmed that he was ending his association with David Lemieux, more than ten years ago, the highly respected boxing man explained that his former student was suffering from what he called it “the slugger’s disease.”
Like Joe Louis, Mike Tyson, George Foreman and many others before him, Lemieux fell in love with his power. He no longer necessarily felt the need to “do one more round in the gym or run another mile,” Anber said.
If no one has ever raised the slightest doubt about all the efforts he can deploy in training, Steven Butler is today the first to admit that he has relied far, far too much on his formidable strength of has been hitting since the start of his career.
The last time was last June against Patrice Volny. Determined to punish him, Butler completely missed the point, which was wanting to win. Volny took the opportunity to win by stoppage of the referee in the ninth round and inflict his fifth defeat on Butler. A setback that the main party suffered very hard.
“I’m sure that my fight against Volny was me who lost it,” Butler explained on Tuesday, two days before his comeback fight which he is preparing to fight on Thursday evening in the semi-final of the event that Eye of the Tiger will present at the Cabaret du Casino de Montréal.
“Without taking anything away from him, he was just mentally more ready than me to want to win the fight,” he continued. I was there to knock him out. I wasn’t there to try to win, but to make a statement. I had put a lot of pressure on myself because of the excitement surrounding this fight.
“It was an amateur mistake, especially with the experience I have accumulated over the years. The same mistake I made with Brandon Cook where I felt like I had to knock him out, when I could have boxed him. With confidence, I would have won the fight. »
But at the dawn of his thirties and now with forty fights under his belt, Butler swears he has understood that he is condemned to change, otherwise he will have no chance of winning these famous clashes which allow us to separate the wheat from the the tares.
“Too often I have played game of my opponents rather than playing my gameButler said. All this is now behind me, which is why I am before you today.
“I am confident and I am especially confident in the future. From now on, I just have to be determined to win my fights and not give show. We are not in the fight. I know I will be spectacular in any circumstances. You will never hear me mention that I am going to knock out my opponent again. »
Obviously, this paradigm shift was the result of a long reflection which was encouraged by the members of his entourage: his father Clinton Butler in the lead, but also his promoter Camille Estephan and his greatest confidant, Mathieu Germain.
“I talked a lot with Mathieu and he cited (former super-featherweight, lightweight and super-lightweight champion) Gervonta Davis as an example,” Butler said. He is a boxer who is extremely patient, but who is spectacular when the moment arrives.
“He’s not a guy who tries to knock out his opponents in the first round, but he ends up knocking them all out, because he has the power to do it. I saw myself in him. I have to maintain my striking strength throughout the fight and not just in the first rounds. I need to be able to end the fight at any time. »
Butler knows that he is capable of great performances – against Steve Rolls, in particular – and that it is obviously not his duel on Thursday evening against Fernando Ezequiel Farias – a replacement opponent – which will succeed in changing the perception towards him . If he gets back into the ring, it is first and foremost to regain confidence and prepare for the future.
“After all my defeats, I always came back stronger,” Butler recalled. I’m not at all here to dot the i’s. My defeat against Volny is behind me. »