By Scott Gilfoid: Johnny Nelson of Sky Sports Ringside thinks that the defeat that former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) suffered at the hands of Britain’s Carl Froch (29-2, 21 KO’s) was so bad that Bute will likely never be able to come back from the defeat to where he was previously.

Nelson said on Sky Sports News “The dissection Bute received from the Nottingham man was so severe that I find it difficult to see him coming out on top – and ever being the fighter he was before.”

I think Nelson others are making too big of a deal about Bute’s loss to Froch. It hasn’t affected him mentally. If anything, it’s made Bute a better fighter because he realizes now where his game needs more work and he’s fixing it by focusing more on his defense and his workrate.

Bute’s problem was that he got a little careless and lazy because of all the soft match-making that his promoter did for him the last six years of his boxing career. When Bute started his career he had his game perfect in terms of his defense, footwork and punch volume. But slowly those skills eroded because of all the fodder that Bute was fed one after another.

It’s no surprise then that Bute fell apart mentally and physically when he was suddenly thrown in the ring with Froch. The same thing if not worse would have happened to Bute if they put him in with talents like Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell or Peter Quillin. Those guys would have torn Bute apart had they fought Bute last May instead of Froch. But the good thing is that Bute now recognizes what he needs to fix in his game and he’s actively working on it. But to say that Bute will never be the same just because he got beaten by Froch is looking at his situation in real naive way.

Bute’s not done as a fighter. We saw that in his win over Denis Grachev last Saturday night. Grachev is a bigger puncher than Froch, and Bute was able to take his best shots and fire back with his own in the course of pounding out a nice 12 round decision win. If Bute wasn’t the same fighter that he previously was then he would have been stopped by Grachev. But he wasn’t and he showed a lot of talent in that fight in beating a very good Grachev.

Nelson thinks Bute will possibly look to get out of the Froch rematch despite the pressure being put on him by boxing fans to take the fight. Nelson said “if he [Bute] can find a way out if it he will.”

I don’t believe that for a second. Bute won’t dodge the Froch rematch because he couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t get a chance to prove to himself and to his boxing fans that he’s not the same fighter that lost to Froch. If Bute didn’t want the Froch rematch then he’d have never have faced a dangerous puncher like the light heavyweight Grachev.

The fact is Bute DOES want the Froch rematch, and he’s not going to avoid the fight, especially with it being staged in his hometown of Montreal, Canada. The fight will be much different from the first fight which was staged in Froch’s home city of Nottingham, England.