Who's best: Sergio Martinez, Lucian Bute, Mikkel Kessler or Andre Ward?

IBF super-middleweight champion Lucian “Mister KO” Bute successfully defended his crown against Irishman Brian Magee with a decisive tenth round TKO Saturday night at the Bell Centre in his adopted hometown of Montreal, Quebec.

Bute (28-0, 23 KOs), a native of Romania who has long resided in Canada’s second largest city, floored Magee (34-4-1, 24 KOs) with a devastating body blow in the sixth.

Magee ultimately managed to scrape himself off the canvas a total of three times before the referee mercifully halted the bout.

"It was not an easy fight," said Bute, 31. "I hit him early, but he has a very hard head. I hit him and hit him and he kept advancing."

Michael D’Avirro was born and raised in Montreal and, like virtually all Canucks, he is an enormous fan of Bute.

“That was possibly the best I have ever seen Bute,” said D’Avirro, 26, who has lived in Brighton since he started taking classes at Boston University in 2002. “He was aggressive and he went for the kill when he had a chance.”

Bute is a very skillful boxer who has posed many opponents problems in the ring with his southpaw stance.

Potential future adversaries for Bute include WBA middleweight titlist Andre Ward, Mikkel Kessler and electrifying WBC super welterweight king Sergio Martinez.

Bute could absolutely beat Kessler (43-2, 32 KOs) and he may be capable of outperforming 2004 Olympic Gold medalist Ward (23-0, 13 KOs) on a given evening.

However, Bute couldn’t even compete with Martinez (47-2-2, 26 KOs) in the squared circle.

Martinez is an elite prizefighter and Bute is strictly a solid pugilist.

Martinez would easily outclass Bute and emerge victorious over “Mister KO” by a violent knockout within eight rounds if they ever met in the ring.