Bute Taking & Froch Giving!
CANNUCK COULDN’T SWIM, SO HE SUNK!
Los Angeles, CA– Saturday’s fight from Nottingham, UK between Carl Froch (29-2, 21 KOs) and now former IBF super middleweight (168 lbs) champion Lucian Bute (30-1, 24 KOs) was a crossroads fight for the Englishman Froch. Could the Brit come back from his one-sided defeat to universally recognized 168 lb. world champion Andre Ward (25-0, 13 KOs) last year? Would Lucian Bute silence his critics and win impressively in Froch’s home town and move himself into the upper echelon of prizefighters? No, it wasn’t meant to be as the Englishman impressively beat on the heavily favored Canadian, by way of Romania before winning a TKO in round five.
BUTE COULDN’T GET WARD SO HE ROLLED THE DICE
After Bute failed to get the fight he so desired against Ward, the winner of the Super Six World Boxing Classic, he took the next biggest fight available against the rugged, but perceived to be the lesser man when comparing skills to Carl “The Cobra” Froch. Doing the unexpected, Bute went into the UK expecting to win big and use the victory as leverage to lure Ward into Canada for a super fight. Unfortunately Lucien was in over his head, because from the opening bell it was clear that Froch not only had a superb game plan, he was the stronger of the two. Expected to come forward, Froch did the opposite. He instead waited for the Canadian to come to him, and used his jab to set up his power punches. After less than five rounds, in which Bute was dazed in every three-minute stanza, Bute was left concussed and probably wondering why he didn’t just take another easy fight against another one of the semi-stiffs on his resume.
“EXPOSED” AN OVER USED TERM!
First thing that comes to the mind of a boxing fan when an unbeaten fighter loses is that he was exposed. However, what was exposed appropriately is how good or possibly great of a fighter the Englishman is. Remember, a fighter is only as good as his opposition, and if you fight the best fighters available time and again, you are bound to lose here and there. It’s obvious that some prizefighters learn from losing bouts and get better as a result. Froch, once thought as nothing more than a crude brawler with wrinkles in his game, has learned from fighting top fighters consistently. In fact Bute wasn’t really exposed, he just fought an opponent who had the tools to overcome Bute’s difficult southpaw style and the courage to take chances and trade punches with a fighter possessing perceived advantages in speed and power.
WHERE DOES BUTE GO FROM HERE? REMATCH? I THINK NOT!
The Canadian will obviously need to regroup and rethink his career in the short term. As for the Englishman he has some unfinished business. Mainly a rematch with now light heavyweight (175) Mikkel Kessler (45-2, 34 KOs). Their first fight was a close decision loss for Froch in Kessler’s native Denmark. An entertaining fight, a rematch would certainly be welcome in Nottingham or the Dane’s homeland.
Kevin Perry