By Scott Gilfoid: Super middleweight contender Andre Dirrell is picking Carl Froch to pull off an upset by defeating IBF super middleweight champ Lucian Bute in their May 26th fight in Nottingham, UK. Dirrell sees Froch as being too tough for Bute and he feels that Froch is a type of fighter that Bute has never fought before.

Dirrell told the examiner.com “I feel Froch is going to beat Bute…He [Froch] can take body shots, he can take head shots…Bute hasn’t had no opposition like Froch.”

I can’t say I agree with Dirrell on this one. I think Froch could beat Bute if Bute was trapped in cement or a big sheet of fly paper, but the thing is he’s going to move around the ring and lead foot Froch probably will never get close enough to beat him. Dirrell maybe forgets how he staggered Froch on a couple of occasions in the 10th round in their fight in 2009 when Dirrell gave Froch a little taste of his power. Froch didn’t like it and was staggering. Bute is a little more offensive minded than Dirrell was back then, and he’ll be lashing Froch from the 1st round without let up. Froch has a good chin but he’s only human. You can’t take those huge uppercuts from Bute for long without hitting the canvas for a 10 round. If Froch was a really big banger, he might be able to get Bute out of there before he starts blasting him with uppercuts but Froch’s power isn’t big enough.

I think Froch’s ability to take punishment won’t help him in this fight because Bute is going to get him and spoil his homecoming party in Nottingham in front of his loud British fans. There will probably be a lot of disappointed Froch cans going home after the fight with sad faces, wondering what happened to him.