Former IBF super middleweight titleholder Lucian Bute underwent a successful 40-minute operation on Thursday to remove bone fragments from his left hand, the result of an injury that forced his May 25 fight against former light heavyweight champ Jean Pascal in Montreal to be postponed, his promoter, InterBox, announced.

The May 25 card at Bell Centre was canceled entirely.

“Lucian Bute underwent successful surgery to his left hand today, in Florida. As expected, Dr. Veronica Pedro extracted several bone fragments during the 40-minute operation,” read a statement from Interbox. “Lucian is in good spirits and recuperating at his Florida residence. He will be fitted with a cast next Thursday.”

Bute-Pascal was part of an HBO-televised doubleheader featuring the 168-pound rematch between IBF super middleweight beltholder Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler, who decisioned Froch in April of 2010, from the O2 Arena in London.

Although Kessler-Froch II will still air on HBO (in the U.S.), it is not known if it will still be broadcast live in parts of Canada now that Bute-Pascal has been postponed.

Bute (31-1, 24 KOs) is coming off a unanimous-decision victory over previously unbeaten Denis Grachev last November, which helped him to rebound from last May’s fifth-round knockout loss to Froch that cost him his IBF title.

Pascal (27-2-1, 16 knockouts) is coming off a unanimous-decision triumph over Aleksy Kuziemski last December that helped him to rebound from a unanimous-decision loss to Bernard Hopkins in May of 2011.

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]