By Rob Smith: Both IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute and Carl Froch made weight on Friday in Nottingham, UK for their fight tomorrow night at the Nottingham Arena. Bute came in at 167.75 lbs, and Froch weighed in slightly less at 167.3.
Many boxing fans and writers are of mixed opinion about who will triumph in this fight. Bute has the better power, speed and boxing ability to control the fight. However, Froch is an excellent pressure fighter with very good power. He does well against guys that like to trade shots with him, and he’ll have a chance in this fight if Bute tries to slug with him. The unknown here is if Froch can take Bute’s big body shots. That’s the real mystery, because most of Froch’s opponents have attacked him with head shots, and he’s quite good at taking punches to the head.
At the same time if Bute attempts to land body shots, he’ll be open to Froch’s counter punching. Froch is a superb counter puncher, and that’s part of what makes him so hard to beat. He may not be all that fast, but he’s very good at landing shots immediately after his opponents have thrown a punch. Froch doesn’t hit as hard as Bute, but he hits hard enough to wear you down over time.
Froch will have the advantage in this fight in that he’ll have the crowd on his side urging him on. There’s an expected 9000 fans that will be coming to the fight tomorrow night, and you can imagine that a good portion of them will be Froch’s fans. Bute’s fan base is in Romania and Canada. It’s doubtful that their numbers in the crowd will be anything close to the numbers of Froch fans. Additionally, Froch’s fans tend to be loud and he’s been urging them to make themselves heard so that he can feed off of it.