By Michael Collins: IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch thinks that Lucian Bute will not only choose not to fight him again in a rematch, he also believes that Bute may never fight again period after his 5th round TKO loss to Froch last Saturday night in Nottingham.
Froch gave Bute a pretty severe beat, hurting him in the 3rd, 4th and finishing him off with some tremendous shots in the 5th round. It was an impressive win, and it’s understandable if Bute chooses not to use their rematch clause to get a second fight with Froch in Montreal. However, to say that Bute will never fight again after this loss, that’s kind of hard to believe. It looks like Froch is getting a little carried away with the euphoria from his big upset win and not seeing things clearly.
Froch said to thesun.co.uk “I’m not bragging. That was some performance by me, and I think it was a career-ending performance. I don’t think he’s going to want to fight again, let alone fight me again. I don’t think Bute will want the rematch.”
I don’t think Bute will want the rematch either, and if I was his promoter I would strongly urge him not to take it. Bute needs to swallow his pride and go back to the drawing board to try and improve the areas that Froch exposed in this fight. Bute’s chin obviously won’t be getting any better at 32, but he can learn to use his jab, and not position himself foolishly on the ropes like he did against Froch.
Bute’s arms aren’t that long, but he needs to make sure he can keep some distance between him and his opponents so that he doesn’t bludgeoned into submission again like he did last night. Bute also needs to learn throw combos. He looked like he was spending too much time hoping to nail Froch with one big blow and hoping he would drop like a lot of Bute’s opponents. But Froch is really dreaming if he thinks Bute is going to be mentally ruined to the point where he’ll retire off of this fight. He’s making too much money for him to retire and the Canadian fans will still be there for him.