By Scott Gilfoid: It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) is going to take some god awful punishment on May 26th against IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-0, 24 KO’s) in the Nottingham Arena in Nottingham, UK.

It just kind of goes with the territory, I guess. If Froch wants the International Boxing Federation strap, he’s going to have to walk through hell and back to get it against Bute. I just don’t know whether Froch is willing to take the kind of punishment needed for him to take Bute’s title.

I saw Librado Andrade take enormous punishment against Bute in 2008 and still end up losing when he got royally jobbed in Canada. There’s NO WAY Bute deserved to win that fight, but he did. Froch won’t have to worry about gift decisions on May 26th, but he will have to worry about taking some really serious punishment in this fight.

Froch will have to do exactly what Andrade did, but against a better version of Bute. The version of Bute that Andrade clearly beat in 2008 was one that wasn’t addicted to throwing uppercuts or one that was deadly body puncher. Bute has now added uppercuts and body punching to his arsenal and he is one of the best knockout punchers in the super middleweight division if not the best.

Bute is a much better puncher than Froch with better power and much hand speed. Froch is going to have to take shots that he’s never had to take. The only fighters that come close to Bute’s power was Jermain Taylor and Andre Dirrell, both of which hurt Froch. But neither of those guys were really going after Froch the way that Bute will in this fight. He knows what he has in front of him – a fighter that leads with his chin and keeps his guard dangling by his waist. Froch is just begging to get knocked out with his bad defensive habits and Bute is going to be looking to oblige him on May 26th.