By Scott Gilfoid: Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) takes pride in his ability to take hard shots to the head without going down or getting hurt. There’s little doubt that Froch can take a mean shot to the head and still keep coming forward at full steam.

If he was facing a head hunter, I’d like his chances in his next fight on May 26th. Unfortunately for Froch, he’s fighting IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-0, 24 KO’s), who could be the best body puncher that boxing has seen in many, many years. He’s certainly the best body puncher in the game right now without question. That’s the whole problem.

Froch’s game is centered around his ability to take the hard head shots from his opponents and then fire back with his own. Froch wins often just because he can take his opponent’s hard punches and then return fire with his own. But he’s not going to have that kind of fighter in front of him on May 26th at the Nottingham Arena in Nottingham, UK.

Bute is first and foremost a body puncher, and when he goes to the body, he finishes his opponents. There’s none of that wearing down junk that you see with most body punchers. Bute simply KOs his opponents when he goes to the body, and it doesn’t matter how good they are at taking hits to the midsection; they go down anyway. For Froch it’s a bad situation because he’s spent so many years facing mostly British fodder in the UK and fighting in a strand up European style which includes very little punching to the body. It’s almost exclusively punches to the head that Froch has had to endure in his fights.

Bute is going to give Froch a new experience in this fight and I don’t see how Froch can be ready for what he’s about to face in the ring on May 26th. I suppose Froch has a small chance of getting to Bute before he gets to him but I don’t see that happening. Froch doesn’t have that kind of crushing power. He’s someone that has to land a lot of shots over the course of many rounds before he’s able to get a knockout win.