By Scott Gilfoid: The May 26th fight between former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) and IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-0, 24 KO’s) is likely heading for an outdoor arena in Nottingham, UK due to a reported heavy demand from British boxing fans to see Froch take on one of the best fighters in the division.

The fight was originally scheduled to take place at the 10,000 seat Capital FM Arena in Nottingham, but with tickets being ordered at a rapid pace, Eddie Hearn, the promoter for Froch, decided that a larger venue will be needed to fit with the demand from the boxing public and more importantly to maximize profits for the fight. As such, an outside football arena is being considered for the fight.

Hearn is considered two outdoor venues in Nottingham, as well as venues in London and Manchester. I’m sure Froch would prefer to fight in Nottingham, as that’s his home city and he hasn’t fought there in over three years since beating Andre Dirrell by a questionable 12 round split decision in October 2009 in the Super Six tournament. But Hearn will go with whatever is the best fit to house the fans and bring in the highest gate possible.

It’s hard to imagine Froch fighting in front of a crowd in excess of 10,000 fans in the UK, because he’s never been a huge seller like that, but perhaps with the top fighters like David Haye no longer fighting and Amir Khan having moved his fights over to the United States, there’s just no one left for the British fans to rally behind. Ricky Hatton is long gone, and guys like Kell Brook, Ricky Burns and Nathan Cleverly still aren’t big names. It’s weird that Froch is getting all this attention given that he was easily beaten by WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward in his last fight last December in the Super Six tourney finals. Froch got pretty well schooled in that fight and was never really competitive. I guess the fans still are excited about Froch, but that excitement likely won’t last if he gets schooled again. If Bute spanks him, then you can expect the crowds to really thin out something fierce.