See this posting for the complete Bute statement. [url]http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=405395[/url] Boxing is a rough sport. If you lose you either quit or pick up the pieces and get back in the ring. Basic human psychology tells us that as human beings, if we don't know the answer to something, we aren't adverse to making it up. That is why we get some of the "excuses" we do. They are coping mechanisms for when the truth isn't what a fighter needs to hear from themselves. Reading Bute's statement he seems fairly introspective about where he went wrong and believes it was a tactical error that cost him the fight. He says going to the ropes was a mistake. Reading that reminded me of Pavlik/Taylor II. Taylor had come to the same conclusion and in the second fight if his back touched the ropes he would get out and not stay there. Even after suffering his first loss by a pretty brutal KO he did fairly well in the rematch. Bute seems to think he can do the same. We have people saying Froch would only KO him sooner in a rematch. Many people on this forum are convinced that you don't come back from a loss like this. Bute seems determined to take the rematch. Can Karl make him freeze up again with his power? Can Bute use the friendly confines of Montreal to get his 'edge' again? Was this at least a partial mental lapse and something he can get over? Will the loss help his focus? Many are writing off this rematch. Not me. I think it could be very interesting and perhaps surprising.
Early on Froch kept his hands up. I'm not sure if he starts all fights that way though because I'm used to seeing them down. As the fight went on he started doing the dangling left again. Bute needs to break that habit if he takes a rematch. My interest in this thread though is mindset. Bute has obviously been over this in his mind already and broken it down. His answer wasn't socks, blood, nutritionist was geared to weight lifters... but a fairly analytical breakdown of the tactics of the fight. He doesn't sound like a broken fighter to me. Discouraged, disappointed, yes. Not broken.
No loaded wraps, this guy has a glass jaw. Froch whooped his ass. Taylor has a better jaw. Nothing bute can do.. he will get his ass beat. It wasn't a contested fight... it wasnt one he was dominated for 12 rounds, or loss 7 to 5, 8 to 4 or something, what adjustments can he make for his jaw? Bute doesn't fight with a tight defense, he uses reflexes, and Froch, although bute said was slow, he was more awkward in how he throws his shots than bute thought. He will lose the rematch even worst than before, unless he gains Froch respect and hurts him to the body, or gets his attention to get respect for his power. But if the first fight is any indication, Froch walked through that soft **** and whooped that Muthafucca's ass.
Every fighter reacts to a bad KO loss differently. Like when Forrest was #2 P4P and he got blizted and bullied by Mayorga. He came back and fought better. Trinidad got slapped all over and stopped in 12 by Hopkins and retired after fighting a tune up fight "looking" for a Hopkins rematch. And more recently look at Cotto go, I am thoroughly impressed with what he has been doing. Fighters react differently. Lucian seems like a very smart and honest guy though so it's really interesting to see if he does look for the rematch and correct his blunders in the first bout.
Well, Bute has been able to keep quite a few people from landing on the jaw and he would have to do that again. This is the mental aspect though. He could not lose focus for one second and that means not being intimidated and believing he is the better boxer. Can pull that together for a rematch in Montreal though?
The bottom line is that if he can't recover after taking that first good shot from Froch, no amount of preparation will make a difference. I've seldom seen a fighter look so dead once he's hurt. It seems like he can't recover mentally or physically. But who knows, maybe he fights like a girl and pot shots all night and never gets hit clean.
A demolished fighter doing much better in the rematch (either winning outright or fighting a much closer fight) is far more common than one would initially believe. The hardest part is getting that rematch in the first place in today's boxing climate where people hate rematches unless it was a FOTY candidate the first time around. What gets taken for granted is that these guys are world class fighters who didn't get to where they were by accident. They know how to work hard and learn from mistakes, otherwise they wouldn't be at this level in the first place. In a rematch, it's typically harder for the more dominant fighter to repeat what happened the first time around because the losing fighter not only has the opportunity to learn from the mistakes first hand, but they've got the added motivation from being embarrassed the last time out. For the guy who won, it's not as easy to maintain the same edge and hunger that got him the W the first time around because it's too easy to let complacency set in.
And in the first place they look for it at Froch gloves on, before going to the ring. Carl's friends know of what.
Bute fought dumb, moving to the ropes when clearly hurt was a big mistake and letting Froch throw straight after straight right down the pipe. Tactically yes Bute got it wrong but he simply doesn't have the chin or the recovery powers to get back in a fight quickly enough to keep someone off as relentless as Froch when he's hurt.
Bute lost the fight WELL before he decided to go to the ropes and try to counter. That doesn't mean he has no chance of changing his game plan & doing better in a rematch, be he really sounds delusional.
