By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) shouldn’t rush into a rematch with Carl Froch just yet. Bute showed in his win over Denis Grachev last Saturday night that Bute still needs at least two, possibly three more tune-up bouts before he’ll be ready to fight Froch again.
The reason I feel this way is because of some of the bad habits that Bute showed in his win over Grachev, as well as in his loss to Froch. In both fights, Bute frequently retreated to the ropes to try and fight from that position.
Bute didn’t fight well in either bouts when he was fighting with his back to the ropes, as he often took a lot of punishment. But it’s not as if Bute wasn’t being told not to stay on the ropes because clearly he was told. But for some reason Bute kept going back back to the ropes and this allowed Grachev to land his shots.
Froch may not like sitting and waiting around for two or three fights to get the Bute rematch but tough. That’s the way it is. If Froch doesn’t like it then he can stay busy fighting the likes of Mikkel Kessler and Andre Ward. Those guys will obviously beat Froch, so there won’t be a point in Bute and him fighting anymore.
But Bute needs to get a couple of fights under his belt so he can get rid of the bad habits that he’s developed from all that soft matchmaking his promoters did for him the last six years. They have done it in good faith but it’s hurt Bute in terms of him developing bad habits that are proving resistant to change. Bute can’t keep fighting off the ropes like he did in the Grachev and Froch fight because he’ll continue to have problems in his career.
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