Paul Butler: “I’d love the [Alexandro] Santiago fight”

By Shaun Brown

AT 35 years old Paul Butler needs fights that will get his blood pumping and push that extra 10 per cent out of him in training.

On December 11, Butler will have been a professional for exactly 13 years, his career consisting of 38 fights; 35 wins and three losses. The likes of Stuart Hall, Zolani Tete, Emmanuel Rodriguez and Naoya Inoue have all at some point stood across the ring from ‘The Baby-Faced Assassin’ and now, as he prepares to enter 2024, he hopes to face someone of a similar calibre once more.

Eleven months ago, Butler became only the fourth man to take Inoue past 10 rounds in their multi-belt bantamweight encounter in Japan. Inoue was frustrated and left chasing Butler for the majority of the fight but eventually caught up with the Liverpudlian and sealed victory with a knockout in the 11th round.

It would be another six months before Butler returned to the ring but, as he told Boxing News, his time out was not due to an extended rest after his fight with Inoue.

“I was back in the gym [at] the start of February,” he said. “I probably had a month off and I was ready to go again. Boxing gets like that sometimes where you can’t seem to get a fight. And then I did get a fight in June, and I thought here we go now we’ll be chasing the boys; we’ll be chasing all the world titles because they were vacant. It just hasn’t happened for one reason or the other. I don’t know why. But we’re back out in December by the looks of it and we push on from there.”

In June, Butler picked up his first win inside the distance for four years after halting Jeison Cervantes in the first round of their scheduled eight-rounder in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. On December 8, meanwhile, Butler is now booked to fight in Manchester.

“It’s no-one great, it’s no-one good, but I need something before the end of the year,” Butler said.

“I’ve fought just once this year [for] two and a half minutes. It’s not ideal for someone that’s 35 trying to chase another world title. The plan is get this out the way and then I need big fights for next year, so we’ll be chasing them.”

After Naoya Inoue collected all the belts at 118lbs he then vacated them in order to venture north and try his luck at a fourth weight class. In doing so he returned to his brilliant best defeating Stephen Fulton in another dominant showing which earned him an eighth-round stoppage, plus four more titles.

Back at bantamweight all four straps have new owners in the form of Jason Moloney (WBO), Emmanuel Rodriguez (IBF), Alejandro Santiago (WBC) and Takuma Inoue (WBA). Butler, who has held the IBF and WBO versions, is currently ranked number seven with the WBC and has his eye on a shot at Santiago, who won the belt by beating Nonito Donaire on points in July on the Errol Spence Jr-Terence Crawford undercard.

“I’d love the Santiago fight,” Butler said. “We’ve both got a mutual opponent. We’ve both boxed [Willibaldo] Garcia. I boxed him before I boxed [Jonas] Sultan. He [Santiago] beat him on a split [decision] and I beat him on a split, even though I bashed him up. I don’t know how Howard Foster scored that to the other kid but it is what it is. That makes for a good fight [against Santiago]. I’ve just turned 35 so I need a big fight.”