By Marcus Richardson: Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) doesn’t see himself in a must win situation on Saturday night against IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-0, 24 KO’s), because he feels that even if he does lose the fight, he’ll perform well enough to still have options of trying to win other belts. However, Froch doesn’t see Bute escaping with his title tomorrow when they meet up at the Nottingham Arena in front of 9000 fans.
Froch said to Talksport.co.uk “I’m here to win and as long as I do well, and I do what I can do, trust me that IBF title is staying here and I’m not looking past that.”
For Froch to capture Bute’s International Boxing Federation title, Froch will have to come up with a game plan that will take away Bute’s ability to escape pressure. Bute has always been very good at eluding come forward type of opponents like Froch. He did have some problems in his first fight with Librado Andrade in 2008, but Bute really pounded Andrade with a ton of shots before getting hurt in the 11th and knocked down in the 12th round.
Froch can probably take as much punishment as Andrade did and still keep coming, but I don’t know that Froch will still have the power late in the fight to do anything when that time comes. Froch did rally to stop Jermain Taylor in a 12th round knockout in April of 2009, but he only was able to get the stoppage because Taylor made the mistake of trying to trade shots with him in the 12th. Bute is smart enough to know that if he has a big lead – or any kind of lead – going into the 12th, he’ll move away from Froch rather than trying to mix it up with him.