Bute wants Froch-Ward winner in 2012

By Boxing News - 07/12/2011 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: International Boxing Federation (IBF) super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (29-0, 24 KO’s) is interested in facing the winner of the Super Six tournament finals bout between WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch and WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward in the first part of 2012.

However, the chances of Bute facing the Froch-Ward winner isn’t likely to happen because Bute will be making a huge step up in class against former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (37-2, 32 KO’s) in December and I can’t see Bute winning this fight.

Pavlik hits too hard and Bute is there to be hit with his odd looking fighting stance that leaves him open for taking punishment. Bute’s main line of defense in the past has been his footwork rather than his guard. When opponents would attempt to hit him, Bute would back away quickly to keep from getting tagged. But in the last year, Bute’s foot speed is slowing down he’s starting to get hit more and more.

Unfortunately, Bute doesn’t keep his guard up because at least he could fall back on that when his feet are no longer working for him. That’s not an option that Bute has going for him because his right hand is usually just hanging by his sides while his left isn’t much good for anything but throwing punches, usually in the form of uppercuts.

Bute will have huge problems against Froch and Ward if he gets that far. I don’t think he will, though, because Pavlik’s power shots will have Bute running backwards all night long and his left uppercut won’t have any effect on Pavlik. He’ll take the occasional uppercut from Bute in order to batter him with 1-2 combinations.

Ward and Froch are on a whole different level than Bute from what I can see. I think they’ll really expose Bute if he does face one of them. Frankly, I doubt Bute will fight either of those guys. He’s made a nice career out of facing little known fighters and don’t think he’ll want to take any risks by changing that pattern.



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