By Scott Gilfoid: FORMER WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) is coming into his May 26th fight against IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-0, 24 KO’s) still licking his wounds from his trashing by WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward last December in a hopelessly one-sided loss in the finals of the Super Six tournament.

Froch says he didn’t want to take a tune-up fight before jumping back into the world class level, so here we are getting ready to see Froch take on one of the best fighters in the division on May 26th in Froch’s home city at the Nottingham Arena, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, UK. Bute is one of the best, but the best fighter in the division. He’s starting to age a little and you can see a little deterioration starting to occur in his game.

I think a lot of that has been covered up the soft matchmaking that’s been done for him in the past two years, but on May 26th we’ll see what’s left of Bute. Mind you, I think he’s got more than enough to handle the likes of Froch and whip him fairly easily as long as he does get hit too much. If Froch can put hands on him then we could be seeing a whole different fight, especially with 9000+ Froch fans screaming their heads off motivating him to chase Bute down.

Unfortunately, that’s what we’re going to be seeing on May 26th, because Bute will revert back to his old style of fighting by hitting and retreating. If Froch shows even a slight hint of coming forward, Bute will retreat to make sure Froch can’t land his shots. The way to beat Bute is to keep coming after him until he runs out of real estate but you have to possess quick feet to do that and I doubt Froch can do it.

The other way to beat Bute is to time him by waiting for him to make his predictable attacks and then clock him with a big right hand or left hook. Bute is pretty predictable in what he does. He always shuffles forward with that low guard and then starts throwing jabs to the body and then comes in with the old right uppercut if his opponent gets in close. He also likes to really load up on his body shots so Froch will have to be ready for those tricks. If Froch can handle Bute’s occasional big shots, then he’ll have a chance if he can come after him to prevent Bute from pot shotting him all night. I have my doubts.

Bute agreed to come to Nottingham because he sees something in Froch’s style that makes him feel that he not only can beat him but beat him badly enough to where the judges won’t have any choice but to make him the winner of the fight. I have a feeling that it’s going to be fairly one-sided unless Froch is quick enough on his feet to chase him down and stop him with a right hand to the head. Bute is vulnerable but it takes quick fighters with fast foot and hand speed to beat him like the Dirrell brothers and Ward. I don’t think Froch belongs with those guys, so he’ll probably lose badly in front of his fans and it’ll be a sad day in Nottingham.