Carl Froch vs. Lucian Bute

No Easy Way Out

Date	26 May 2012
Venue	Nottingham Arena, Nottingham, East Midlands, UK
Title(s) on the line	IBF Super Middleweight Championship
Tale of the tape
Boxer Lucian Bute Carl Froch Nickname "Le Tombeur" Mister KO "The Cobra" Hometown Pechea, Sud-Est, Romania Nottingham, East Midlands, United Kingdom Pre-fight record 30–0 (24 KO) 28–2 (20 KO) Age 32 years, 2 months 34 years, 10 months Height 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) Weight 167+3⁄4 lb (76 kg) 167+1⁄4 lb (76 kg) Style Southpaw Orthodox Recognition IBF Super Middleweight Champion The Ring No. 1 Ranked Super Middleweight IBF No. 1 Ranked Super Middleweight The Ring No. 2 Ranked Super Middleweight
Result
Froch beats Bute by KO in 5th round

Carl Froch vs. Lucian Bute , billed as No Easy Way Out, a professional boxing match contested on 26 May 2012 for the IBF Super Middleweight title at the Capital FM Arena in Nottingham, United Kingdom. ^{[1] [2]}

The card was a co-production of Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing and Jean Bedard's Interbox promotions and televised via Epix and Sky Sports. ^{[3] [4]} Showtime was not interested in this fight. Bute had one fight left on his Showtime deal. Rumours said that Showtime wanted to put on a fight between Lucian Bute and Bernard Hopkins or Andre Ward instead of Froch. ^[5]

Background

Froch

Carl Froch was involved in Showtime's Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament. He ended up reaching the final, losing to Andre Ward. Then, IBF officially enforced Carl Froch as Lucian Bute's number one mandatory. ^[6]

Bute

Lucian Bute's 3-fight Showtime deal was supposed to culminate in a showdown against the Super 6 winner, but Andre Ward was injured in the final. The American also criticised Bute's record, saying he would need to beat some top opponents to earn the right to face him^{[ citation needed ]}

Bute agreed then to take a break from his contract with the Showtime channel and to accept what may end up being less than half his usual purse in order to travel to England to face Carl Froch, a two-time WBC champion with established credibility.^{[ citation needed ]}

"In recent years, I've been criticized for only fighting at home but we never got offers to go elsewhere and I had to keep boxing," Bute said. "I decided that this time, I'll make my 10th defence in Nottingham." ^[7]

The fight

Despite being the overwhelming underdog with bookmakers, critics and fans around the world, Froch dominated the fight to win the IBF Super-Middleweight championship of the world by TKO in round 5 to become a three-time world champion. ^{[8] [9] [10]}

Fight card

Confirmed bouts: ^[11]

• Super Middleweight Championship Carl Froch vs. Lucian Bute (c)
  • Froch defeats Bute via KO in 5th round.
• Super-Bantamweight Championship Carl Frampton vs. Raúl Hirales, Jr.
  • Frampton defeats Hirales via unanimous decision.
• Light Middleweight bout Erick Ochieng vs. A.A Lowe
  • Ochieng defeats Lowe via unanimous decision.
• Light Welterweight bout Mark Loyd vs. Pier-Olivier Côté
  • Côté defeats Loyd via KO in 5th round.
• Middleweight bout John Ryder vs. Luke Robinson
  • Ryder defeats Robinson via decision.
• Middleweight bout Ryan Aston vs. Paul Samuels
  • Aston defeats Samuels via 5th round.
• Welterweight bout Adnan Amar vs. Terry Carruthers
  • Carruthers defeats Amar via decision.
• Lightweight bout Scott Cardle vs. Ideh Ockuko
  • Cardle defeats Ockuko via decision.
• Featherweight bout Leigh Wood vs. Delroy Spencer
• Lightweight bout Kieran Farrell vs. Jason Nesbitt
  • Farrell defeats Nesbitt via decision.

International broadcasting

Country	Broadcaster
Argentina	Combate Space
Australia	Main Event
Canada	Canal Indigo
Chile	Combate Space
Colombia	Combate Space
Costa Rica	Combate Space
Czech Republic	Sport 1
Denmark	TV 2 Sport
Ecuador	Combate Space
Estonia	Viasat Sport Baltic
Guyana	Combate Space
Hungary	Sport 1
Latvia	Viasat Sport Baltic
Lithuania	Viasat Sport Baltic
Mexico	Combate Space
Norway	Viasat Sport
Panama	Combate Space
Paraguay	Combate Space
Peru	Combate Space
Philippines	AKTV
Poland	Canal+ Sport
Romania	The Money Channel
Slovakia	Sport 1
South Africa	SuperSport
Sweden	TV10
United Kingdom	Sky Sports
United States	Epix
Uruguay	Combate Space
Venezuela	Combate Space

References

1. "Lucian Bute vs. Carl Froch". boxrec.com. BoxRec. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
2. ESPN. ESPN.go.com. Retrieved on 2012-03-02
3. Boxing Scene. BoxingScene.com. Retrieved on 2012-04-02
4. Sky Sports. SkySports.com. Retrieved on 2012-04-19
5. Boxing News 24. BoxingNews24.com. Retrieved on 2012-01-16
6. "IBF make Carl Froch the number one mandatory to Bute". LiveFight. 9 February 2012. Archived from the original on 17 January 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
7. Sports Net Archived 12 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine . SportsNet.ca. Retrieved on 2012-03-21
8. "Carl Froch hits back at critics".
9. "Underdog Froch demolishes Bute".
10. "Froch unhappy about bookmakers having him as the underdog against Bute". Archived from the original on 31 May 2012.
11. "BoxRec - event".

Preceded by vs. Glen Johnson	Lucian Bute's bouts 26 May 2012	Succeeded by vs. Denis Grachev
Preceded by vs. Andre Ward	Carl Froch's bouts 26 May 2012	Succeeded by vs. Yusaf Mack