By Michael Collins: Former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch and IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (29-0, 24 KO’s) are still in negotiations for a two-fight deal in 2012. The first fight will take place on April the 14th, in Montreal.
The second fight is the conditional bout that won’t happen unless the first fight is a close and exciting fight. That fight will take place in Nottingham, England, where Froch lives.
In the minds of many people, Bute is at least the second best if not the best fighter in the super middleweight division. However, the 34-year-old Froch, who was recently soundly beaten by WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward in the Super Six tournament last month, feels he’s the number #2 guy in the division despite the loss to Ward and another loss to Mikkel Kessler in 2010.
Froch told Sky Sports News “I signed up for the tournament knowing what was in store for me and I’ve enjoyed it, it’s been an epic journey for me. I lost my title, won it back, but at the end of it II just couldn’t keep it against Andre Ward who’s a great fighter. But to be number two super middleweight in the world is not a bad place to be.”
That’s kind of presumptuous of Froch given that he’s still not beaten Bute or avenged his loss to Kessler. I think it’s a good thing for Froch that he’ll find out in part where he stands in the super middleweight division after he faces Bute on April 14th, but I don’t think he’s going to life he discovers about himself.
Bute, Kessler and Ward just may be a class too high for Froch. And you might be able to throw Anthony and Andre Dirrell into the same group because it would be hard to see Froch beating either of those guys. Froch is a good fighter when he’s facing a slow stationary fighter that lets him bang away with his heavy clubbing shots, but against fighters with hand and foot speed, Froch struggles. I think Bute will beat Froch, perhaps as bad as Ward did. Froch had excuses for his loss to Kessler and never really acknowledged that he lost that fight. He may be forced to accept a defeat from Bute if it’s an especially bad like the one that Ward put on Froch.