My expletive filled diatribe brought my bleary eyed beautiful better half up out of bed, as referee Marlon Wright, a man from Montreal, twisted from the fallen champion to chastise Andrade for the distance he was from the corner, in a transparent attempt to give Bute extra seconds to gain his feet and recover.

As the final seconds ticked off the clock, and Wright returned to the task at hand, namely counting, in an excruciatingly slow manner, I unwound (as the season now dictates) a tapestry of obscenities that is still hanging somewhere over the city of Manhattan and the five boroughs of New York.

After Bute was spared, Andrade had little immediate reaction in the ring after the bout. He clearly felt horribly wronged, but kept a cool stately composure, antithetical to his intense barnstorming style in the ring.

Showing more class and grace than anyone around him deserved to be treated with, Andrade even hugged Referee Wright, enduring the smug smile hung on his lips, slathered there in some lame attempt at portraying sorrow for Andrade's misfortune.

A few minutes after being pounded into the canvas and dusting the floor with his backside, after his head had cleared enough to know he'd gotten pretty damn lucky and after he knew he might want to show humility or maybe even shame, Bute was celebrating his win, mounted on the shoulders of some team member, a grin spread across his maw and his eyes in slits from the last few rounds of punishment.

It was around this time that Andrade was finally asked for his opinion on the fight...

"If this is the way to lose a fight, then this is the way I want to lose. I know I won the fight because I came with the intent to knock him out and I did."

Classy, witty and wise; even after the fight Andrade distinguished himself as the true champion in the ring.

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This Saturday the long awaited rematch is finally set to begin.

In the interim Bute bested Fulgencio Zuniga, best known for getting knocked out by Kelly Pavlik three and a half years earlier, while Andrade socked Vitali Tsypko, he of closely contested Jeff Lacy battles.

It will be about eight months out of the ring for each of them. If there is any ring rust for either it would probably show up more in Bute's finesse game then Andrade's Mayorgarito-face-forward, unrelenting pressure push.

Still, neither showed new wrinkles in their last bouts, and chances are the rematch will look an awful lot like their first go around, with Bute controlling virtually all the rounds on his way to a clear decision.

The only things that may make a difference are a few, usually tangential, factors that may rise to prominence if Andrade comes in with equal or greater intensity to what he delivered in their first go around.

Firstly, Bute may have escaped with his belt in October of '08, but did he walk out with his full confidence? If Andrade comes forward like a cyborg bent on destruction for another ten, eleven, or twelve rounds, perhaps Bute will have flashbacks of his harrowing collapse down the stretch of their first fight.

For while the Canadian Champion was able to act as matador to Librado's bull rush for the first two or three quarters of the fight, it took it's toll. By nights end he could barely stay on his feet when he wasn't getting hit, let alone when Andrade's swarming punches finally convened on his head late in the fight.

Secondly, Bute was allowed to hold excessively throughout the fight by his tag team partner, referee Marlon Wright. As Andrade's pressure started to wear Lucian down, and he began to have a harder time keeping him away, he was left no alternative other than to clutch Andrade and ride out the storm.  Referee Wright seemed perfectly at ease with Bute hugging it out. Coincidentally, he managed to get between the two fighters whenever Bute seemed in a little trouble, putting solid work in as a human shield from time to time. At any rate, it took awhile for Librado to adapt to Bute's jab and grab scheme.

Word for word, here are a few of the notes that I penned while watching them go at it last time:

Then a round or two later:

Of course this was just before the wheels really fell off the Bute wagon. One other of my notes might bear inspection, this from earlier in the bout, when Bute was more in control...

At the time it was a reaction to Bute landing more punches do to activity, but with little effect. The better comparison however might come from how these two Super Middleweight Champions careers have been run.

LIke Calzaghe, who was all but impossible to pry from his home for a bout, twenty of Bute's twenty four bouts have been in Canada. Those four times he fought elsewhere, his competition sported a combined record of 50-42-3. In other words he's played it pretty safe his entire career.

If you are fighting at "home" with a crowd behind you, with favorable judges and referees (whether or not it is overt favoritism) you are fighting with help. It's an advantage to never travel, and a mental advantage having everyone in the stadium on your side... and knowing that as long as you keep it close, more then likely the judges are going to give you the edge.

Whether he's needed it or not, it's a security blanket. And Lucian got wrapped up nice and warm that chilly October night.

If Andrade is to overcome the sort of nationalistic indiscretions he fell prey to in their last bout, the tough as nails punchslinger will have to put Bute to sleep and tuck him in himself.

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As the elegant MexiCalifornian man said following his loss to Mikkel Kessler; "I'm a time collector... and this is a wonderful time to collect."

A fine example on how to live and appreciate opportunities and what you've been given, even if you hoped and worked for more. 

A beautiful sentiment.  And now with a duel meaning...

"This is a wonderful time to collect."...

...To collect a debt owed to him by Marlon Wright, Montreal, Quebec, and Lucian Bute.