Roach could take over as Lucian Bute’s trainer

By Boxing News - 08/09/2014 - Comments

roach4334By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Freddie Roach is thinking of taking over as the trainer for former IBF super middleweight champion Luician Bute (31-2, 24 KOs). Roach needs to find time to work with the 34-year-old Bute.

That’s the only question, whether Roach has time to work with the Canadian based fighter. Bute met with Roach recently to discuss him taking over as his trainer.

“Freddie Roach says he will work with Lucien Bute if he can promise to devote the proper amount of time to him,” said Steve Kim.

Bute has lost 2 out of his last 3 fights since May of 2012, and things are looking kind of dire for the 34-year-old fighter. First it was WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch who beat Bute in destroying him in 5 rounds in their fight in May of 2012, and then last January, Bute was beaten by Jean Pascal by a 12 round decision. Bute’s only win in the past two years was a harder than expected 12 round decision victory over Denis Gratchev in November of 2012. Bute didn’t fight at all in 2013 due to injuries.

For Bute to be looking at Roach to take over as his trainer, it tells you that he believes that he’ll be able to turn things around for him the way Roach did with Miguel Cotto in guiding him to victories over Delvin Rodriguez and Sergio Martinez. Roach has been given credit for those wins, and he’s seen as a genius. But you can make a strong argument that Roach hasn’t done a thing to resurrect Cotto.

His victories over Rodriguez and a shot looking Sergio Martinez aren’t all that special given how beatable both of those guys were when Cotto fought them. Roach is looking great right now, but things would be much different if Cotto were put in with Gennady Golovkin and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in his last two fights. Cotto likely would have lost both of those fights, and Roach would be seen in a different light altogether by fans.

With the way that Bute looked in his last fight against Pascal, I’m not sure that Roach is going to be able to turn his career around. There’s no over-the-hill champions for Roach to aim Bute after to turn his career around and look like a genius.

If there was a 40-year-old guy coming off of a 14 month layoff with a bad knee, then Roach could point Bute at that guy and stand by and drink in the glory as Bute dismantles him the way that Cotto did against Sergio Martinez. This is a situation where Roach could come off looking real bad if Bute fails to turn his career around, which is likely.



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