Paul Butler hopes his planned world title fight with Zolani Tete will take place in late February and has warned the South African world champion that his dominant win on Saturday night wasn’t even close to his best.
Butler produced a dazzling performance at the ECHO Arena in Liverpool against Ismael Garnica, punishing the tough Mexican in 10 one-sided rounds for a 100-91 points win.
Super-flyweight star Butler, of Great Sutton, had been scheduled to challenge IBF world champion Tete but the Eastern Cape native broke his hand in training and pulled out.
Promoter Frank Warren aims to announce a new date for the contest soon and Butler, who was given a red-hot reception when he entered the ring, can’t wait to soak up the atmosphere on a world title night.
“It was rocking,” said Butler, who extended his unbeaten record to 17 with eight wins coming inside the distance. “As soon as I came out the crowd were on their feet and that is why I wanted my first world title fight here. My second will be and I’m sure it will be a top night.
“Hopefully a date gets given pretty soon and Tete’s hand recovers pretty well.”
Butler, 25, had admitted to struggling for motivation to face the tough-as-teak Garnica but still gave a scintillating performance and insists that he will move up a few gears when he gets his hands on Tete.
“I really enjoyed myself in there,” Butler said. “It was one of them nights where he was a tough, tough kid and after three or four rounds I knew this kid was going nowhere.
“I just tried to break him down. I was hitting him with stiff jabs to the body and he kept sucking them up and retaliating and so I thought ‘I’m in for the long haul tonight’.
“I just enjoyed myself in there and was nowhere near what I would’ve been for Tete because of the disappointment three weeks before. It would’ve been a different story if it had been Tete.”
Butler won the IBF bantamweight title in June when he defeated Stuart Hall but relinquished the belt to move back down to super-fly.
Hall tried to win back the belt in Monte Carlo on Saturday night, losing to Randy Caballero, and Butler watched the action unfold as he warmed up for his own contest.
“I was in the changing rooms watching Stuey Hall fighting Randy Caballero and I’m thinking ‘It should be me that boxing for the world title’,” he said.
“It took the buzz away of boxing Garnica. I didn’t think Caballero was that good in there and I was saying ‘I should’ve stayed at bantam, I should’ve stayed at bantam’. But it can’t be helped that Tete broke his hand.”
Ellesmere Port pair Mason Cartwright and Matty Fagan, who train with Butler under Anthony ‘Arnie’ Farnell, were also in action on Saturday. Fagan, 26, suffered his first defeat as a pro, losing out 58-57 on points to 28-year-old Latvian Andrejs Podusovs over six rounds.
Fagan, who had dropped to super-featherweight for the fight, now holds a record of six wins and one loss from seven contests.
Cartwright, 21, faced 32-year-old Duane ‘Mad Dog’ Green in his professional debut and the welterweight won all four rounds to score a 40-36 win.
