ESPN Boxing

MONTREAL, Quebec --- Marlon B. Wright didn't exactly cover himself with glory in his ShoBox debut, but suggestions that the Canadian referee's mishandling of Friday's Lucian Bute-Librado Andrade fight "cost Andrade the title," as many pundits were saying, are probably misplaced.

Although it was plain to see that Bute had all but been knocked senseless in the final round, he retained his IBF super middleweight title primarily because somewhere in his by-then-cobwebbed brain he had the presence of mind to haul himself to his feet before the final bell.

Wright's misconceived "long count" might have looked suspicious, but in the end it didn't alter the outcome.

For 10 rounds Bute had turned in the bravura performance the 16,266 Quebecois fans who packed the Bell Centre had anticipated, but in the 11th he either (take your pick) ran out of gas, punched himself out or suffered an abrupt metabolic alteration -- and suddenly it was Andrade, who had spent most of the evening absorbing punches, who was meting them out.

By the waning minute of the final round, Andrade was belting a helpless Bute around the ring, but when the champion finally did go down in an ungainly heap (ostensibly from an Andrade left, although truth be known Bute was at that point so spent Librado didn't have to do much more than wave at him), he hit the floor in concert with the timekeeper's floor-pounding signal to cue the fighters that 10 seconds remained in the round.

"[Bute] was completely out," said Andrade.

Whether Bute or referee Wright were even aware of the 10-second signal is immaterial. While it doesn't justify the referee's actions over those waning seconds, the fact of the matter is that, given the requirement for a mandatory eight-count, another punch could not have been thrown anyway. All Bute had to do was get up -- and, laboriously hauling himself by the ring ropes, he did that.

Bute had actually struggled to his feet as the referee had reached the count of six, but at that point Wright abruptly wheeled and, noting that Andrade had ventured a few steps out of the neutral corner, abandoned his count. Wright admonished the Mexican-born American challenger, walking across the ring to chase him back. Several seconds elapsed before he resumed his count, and when he did, he picked up right back where he had left off -- at six.

Two beats later he reached eight, and the bell sounded, much to the relief of the stunned audience and, even more, to Bute's own evident relief.

Still, the fact remains that the sum effect of the referee's botched performance was to attenuate those final eight or nine seconds.

Russ Anber, the voice of Canadian boxing who was calling the fight for TSN, replayed the tape and confirmed that no matter what Wright did, there wouldn't have been time to count Bute out as long as he got up.

In the five short years since Bute emigrated from his native Romania, Quebec fans have taken the 28-year-old to their collective bosom. They regularly pack the Bell Centre -- where fight night was preceded by a Thursday night Madonna concert, and followed by a Montreal Canadiens game against the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday -- for his hometown appearances with a devotion that has been nothing short of astonishing.

That Bute enjoys such an overwhelming home-field advantage in Montreal is particularly interesting, considering that some locals view him as "a faux Canadian" (as one Quebec native said a day before the fight).

Although Andrade, who brought a 27-1 record to the title bout, was Bute's mandatory challenger, for most of the evening he appeared completely outgunned; Bute repeatedly beat him to the punch. The southpaw champion (now 23-0), worked off his jab to tattoo the visitor with combinations and had built up a huge lead by the middle rounds.

Andrade's charge might have been too little and too late, but in all likelihood, thanks to Wright's mishandling of the final seconds, it was one that will gain him a mandatory rematch.

When the smoke cleared, Bute won by scores of 117-109 (Alex Levin), 115-110 (Mickey Vann) and 115-111 (Benoist Rousell) on the official scorecards. By the time the ring was cleared, Andrade was still howling that he had been jobbed, and seemed to find a sympathetic ear in ShoBox analyst Steve Farhood.

"The fight was 30 seconds too long for Bute," said Farhood. "He totally collapsed, and basically, the referee cost Andrade the title."

George Kimball, who writes for the Irish Times and Boxing Digest as well as ESPN.com, won the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism in 1985. He is the author of the widely acclaimed new book "Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing."