By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn, the promoter for Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s), believes that the hometown advantage that Froch will have this Saturday night in his title challenge against IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-0, 24 KO’s) will be enough to carry Froch to victory in Nottingham, UK.

Hearn said to Sky Sports News “I was surprised really as I see it as a 50-50 fight, perhaps a slight advantage to Froch because he’s at home. Bute is undefeated, but we don’t know how good he is. We’re going to find out how good Bute is, and he might be exceptional, you never know, and if that’s the case Carl’s in for a really tough night.”

The rest of what Hearn had to say was pretty much blather, lecturing on this and that. He did say one important thing by remarking that this is a must win fight for Froch. I agree it is. A loss here for Froch will take him out of the running for bigger fighters against the likes of Andre Ward, Robert Stieglitz and Mikkel Kessler. There is a small chance that Froch could get one of those fights simply for what he did in the past, and because they might see him as fighter to pick up an easy scalp against. But I doubt Froch will get any of those fights if Bute really whips him as bad as I think he will.

I think Hearn is dead wrong about the hometown helping Froch any. The Brits didn’t have any effect on the talented Andre Dirrell in his fight against Froch in Nottingham the last time Froch fought there. However, the fans did seem to help the judges because the screaming for every missed punch by Froch may have helped steer the judges into giving him the fight.

I couldn’t give it to Froch because I had him losing the first six rounds of the fight because of all the missed punches and because of his fouling. He won a few rounds in the second half of the fight, but that was when Froch turned the fight into a physical one. The referee should have stepped in and disqualified Froch for his fouling, but unfortunately he allowed him to get away with it. The rest is history. Froch get the decision that arguably should have gone to Dirrell by a landslide.