Froch could retire after Bute fight, says Hearn

By Boxing News - 05/26/2012 - Comments

Image: Froch could retire after Bute fight, says HearnBy William Mackay: Former two time WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) may opt to retire from boxing should he lose or even win tonight in Nottingham against IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-0, 24 KO’s), says Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn from Matchroom Sports.

Froch has really got his work cut out for him against the faster, younger, bigger punching Bute. Froch is pretty much out-manned in every department except for heart, experience and the hometown advantage. Whether those few advantages will be able to make up for all the areas he’s lacking in is the big question that Froch will have to try and answer tonight against Bute.

Hearn stated in an article at the BBC Sport “He told me ‘I have to win this fight,’ and that’s a different mentality to what he’s had before. He knows the score, a loss here would be a disaster. This is probably his last opportunity to win the world title back. Nothing would surprise me with Carl Froch, he may even retire if he beats Lucian Bute.”

Froch might have a hard time retiring off of a loss, because he has a tremendous amount of self pride, and it would likely be difficult for him to go off into the sunset on a low note, in particular if it’s a knockout defeat for Froch tonight. Although most fighters tend to retire after they get beaten badly, Froch strikes me as someone that will continue fighting until he ends his career with a win. However, it’s premature for Hearn to be talking retirement for Froch. He’s got a lot more things to accomplish even if he does get beat by Bute tonight.

It sounds to me like Hearn may be using the retirement talk for Froch to help make tonight’s fight bigger than it already is. It’s not really needed because it’s a big enough fight on it’s own without Hearn bringing retirement into the equation. But if a loss to Bute is enough to send Froch into retirement then it kind of shows how much Froch put into this fight.

It’s too bad because this wasn’t a good idea for Froch to take this fight, because it’s just a bad match-up for him. Bute does well against fighters that are slow on their fight like Froch, and I think that’s probably the reason why Bute chose to travel to Froch’s home city to fight him. He knows what he’s getting with Froch and he feels very comfortable with his slow and deliberate style of fighting.



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