By Marcus Richardson: Last night IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute was blasted out in five rounds by Carl Froch from Britain in a one-sided fight. Bute never really let his hands go in any real way and seemed to be looking to land one big shot to end the fight. Bute ended up waiting too long and getting hammered by Froch by big clubbing shots. Bute was hurt in the 3rd, 4th and then finished off in the 5th round by a storm of shots from Froch while trapped on the ropes.
After the fight, Bute said to the press “I thought I could catch him with a counter, which I did. I did it a couple of times in the 3rd. He surprised me by hitting me with those shots… He hits with power, but I thought I could take it.”
Bute waited too long to start letting his hands go and looked as if he was trying to set Froch up for one big knockout blow in the same way that he’s done with a lot of his opponents recently. Bute needed to take a page from the Andre Ward playbook by looking to box Froch rather than trying to take him out with one big shot at a time. Froch is known for having a good chin, but his body is untested. Bute didn’t even really hit Froch with many body shots. Most of his punches were aimed upstairs to his head, and Froch took those big punches with no problems.
Bute regrets staying on the ropes and trying to fight Froch while posted up there. He did it because he thought he could take him out with one shot. That was a big mistake on Bute’s part. He should have stayed on the move and tried to avoid Froch’s big right hands.