Carl Froch: "Who has Bute beaten and what has he done?"

On what he is expecting from Bute on May 26:

“What am I expecting from him? Yeah! I’m expecting him to come and fight the fight of his life! That’s what he needs to do to keep his title in my hometown, because it’s going to be very tough for him. I’m coming with all guns blazing, fit and strong. I’m feeling very good so I expect Lucian Bute to show up like a professional, to be fit and strong, and to come and win. In his mind he’s coming here to win the fight but he’s got a very tough task (1) because he’s away from home, he’s in my back yard, and (2)because he’s fighting me. He’s not fought anybody at my level in his whole career. But having said that he’s beaten everybody he’s faced. That’s all you can do, beat who’s in front of you.”

On what made him to decide to take on a guy like Bute coming off the loss to Andre Ward in the Super Six Final following the tough stretch of opponents he has faced since even before the Super Six even started:

“You know it’s just the kind of man I am. I’m very, very disappointed I lost the WBC title. So with that away then to get straight back into world title contention, so that’s just where I’m at. I didn’t want to fight a Joe Buggs, or a bum of the month, or a journeyman. I just didn’t want to do it. I got no motivation for that and no desire to just have a warm-up fight and a tick over fight. I’m 34 years old. I feel I’m in my prime. I feel fit and strong, and I feel great. But you know I’m not 24. I’ve not got time to waist. You don’t see Floyd Mayweather fighting Joe Buggs and names that you don’t know about. I’m not saying I’m Floyd Mayweather by the way, but you get what I’m saying. He’s always involved in big fights. Even if he has a year out or even if he’s inactive for awhile, he doesn’t come back and have a steady fight. Now I know I’ve been fighting the best of the best, but that’s what I’m about! You know I’m a man’s man! I’m very, very serious about the sport and very serious about boxing. I really want to get a world title back around my waist. So the only way to do that was to fight Lucian Bute, because the WBC title wasn’t available, the WBA wasn’t available because Ward had it. So IBF, that’s the next best one as far as I’m concerned. There are only three major governing bodies and that’s the WBC, WBA, and IBF. So Lucian Bute was there and my promoter did a fantastic job and made the fight. So I’m a very happy man.”

His evaluation of Bute’s skill set as a boxer:

“I think he’s a very good boxer/fighter. He can box, he can move, as all southpaws can. You know southpaws are so awkward and they’re quite skillful, but they’re counterpunchers. They move on the back foot and they like to pick you off at range. He’s very good Bute. You got to give him his credit. He’s quite an all arounder. For a southpaw he can fight a bit on his front foot, he can box and move, he uses the ring well. So he’s got a lot of skills. He’s fast. He can bang. If you look at his record is it 28 or 30 wins he stopped about 24. He’s got a high percentage knockout ratio. So he’s got a lot of positive attributes going for him, other than the fact that the level he’s been mixing it at hasn’t been at a super high standard. I mean the two names that stand out on his record are Brian Magee and Glengoffe Johnson, two fighters that I’ve also beat. I knocked out Magee quite bad six years ago, and I broke my hand in round two and I got my knockout later on. I think that fight would have lasted two or three rounds if I didn’t break my hand in round two. We’ve shared another name actually, Sergey Tatevosyan. We shared that opponent. He went twelve rounds and won on points, and I knocked out Tatevosyan, well I stopped him on his feet in the corner in round two or three I think. It might have been round two. So on paper I’ve done a better job than Bute. I’ve beaten a better level of opposition, and I fought at a higher level for longer, and with the opponents we’ve got in common I’ve made easier work of them. Although there is an argument that he did a better job against Johnson than what I did. When Johnson fought me, Glengoffe Johnson, he came to fight. I don’t believe against Bute that Johnson came to fight. I think he just came to get through the fight, and that makes a big difference when someone’s putting you on your back foot and letting shots go. With that aside Bute is a very good fighter who deserves respect. He’s unbeaten and I’m looking forward to taking the title off him, because I really believe I got what it takes to put him under some serious pressure. Especially in my backyard, especially in Nottingham, I’m putting him under a lot of pressure with a high work rate. I’m super fit at the minute. Everything is going well in the gym. I did 13 rounds the other day. I did 7 and then 6 and I just did 12 rounds today. I just weighed out at 167 pounds and 4 ounces, and when I went in the gym I weighed 170, and I’ve weighed about 167.5. So I’m on the way, I’m in great shape, and I’ll stop talking now and let you ask another question.” (laughs)

On how he would rate Lucian Bute amongst the other top opponents he has faced in his career:

“It’s difficult to do that, because I thought about this. Somebody asked me a similar question the other day, and because he’s not fought at that top, top level. The Johnson fight doesn’t really count, and the Brian Magee fight don’t count either because Brian Magee is well past his best. He’s had a couple of good ones of late, but really he’s well past his best. It’s hard to judge. It’s hard to judge a level of opposition based on just what you see, especially when they’re fighting low level opposition. You know Lucian Bute might be a great, he might be an all time great, and he might be up there pound-for-pound, but at the minute there is nothing that indicates or proves that he is. You know I fought Mikkel Kessler who’s been in the ring with the likes of Joe Calzaghe and top level fighters like that; and Andre Ward is now being considered pound-for-pound one of the top five; and Andre Dirrell, you know they’re both Olympic Medalists; Arthur Abraham was a knockout puncher and had beaten everybody, and I just got a flawless victory over him; Jermain Taylor was undisputed middleweight champ. He just beat Jeff Lacy and then he fought me on a high. He felt confident he was going to take my belt, and that was a good fight and one that I finished emphatically and dramatically at the end. So you could look at me and say he’s a good fighter because of this, this, and this. But when you look at Bute you can say he’s a decent fighter, but in all honesty who has he beaten and what has he done? He got knocked out as an amateur quite bad. I know that was a long time ago by Golovkin, but he got knocked out as an amateur! You should not really be getting knocked out by amateurs to be honest. If you got a good chin, with the head guards and the gloves, you don’t really get that badly hurt and he was knocked out cold. And let’s not forget the Librado Andrade fight! Now I know he stopped him to the body in the rematch, but you only got to look at that fight and really and truly Lucian Bute lost that fight by knockout stoppage late. He was saved by the referee in the dying seconds as far as I’m concerned, because he was badly gone. So you could count that fight as a loss. It’s hard to assess him and say he’s this good, but we’re certainly going to find out, aren’t we, how good he is on May 26 because he’s in Nottingham and he’s facing Carl Froch, The Cobra, who’s on the comeback trail so I’m very dangerous and I’m very hungry.”


CLICK HERE TO READ ENTIRE CARL FROCH TRANSCRIPT

This content is protected

 

Thank you!!!!
:good

I never heard the saying before, and had no ****ing clue what he was sayiong.

You're 100% sure on this?

 

What's your pick Imperial? How do you see the fight unfolding?

 

Thanks. Sincerely!
:thumbsup

I am usually pretty good at accurately transcribing what people say, but sometimes I'm just totally thrown off. And this was one of those times.

I debated over Buggs and Boggs.



Now I know a new little bit about Brit slang.

:smoke