Carl Froch vs. Lucian Bute

Last updated

No Easy Way Out
Frochvsbute.jpg
Date26 May 2012
Venue Capital FM Arena, Nottingham, England
Title(s) on the line IBF Super Middleweight Championship
Tale of the tape
Boxer Flag of Romania.svg Lucian Bute Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Carl Froch
Nickname Le Tombeur
Mister KO
The Cobra
Hometown Pechea, Romania Nottingham, England
Pre-fight record 30-0-0 (24 KO) 28-2 (20 KO)
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight 167 lb (76 kg) 167 lb (76 kg)
Recognition IBF
Super Middleweight Champion
IBF
No. 1 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]

Contents

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. [2] [3] 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. [4]

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. [5]

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." [6]

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. [7] [8] [9]

Fight card

International broadcasting

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

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andre Ward</span> American boxer

Andre Michael Ward is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2017. He retired with an undefeated record and held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including unified super middleweight titles between 2009 and 2015, and unified light heavyweight titles between 2016 and 2017.

Jermain Taylor is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2014. He remains the most recent undisputed middleweight champion, having won the WBA (Undisputed), WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring middleweight titles in 2005 by beating Bernard Hopkins, and in doing so ending Hopkins' ten-year reign as middleweight champion. This made Taylor the first, and to date, only male boxer in history to claim each title from all four major boxing sanctioning organizations in a single fight. He once again defeated Hopkins six months later, making him the only fighter to have defeated Hopkins twice. He retired as a world champion in the months that followed his capture of the IBF middleweight title for a second time, after making a substantial recovery from a brain injury sustained earlier in his career.

Super middleweight, or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucian Bute</span> Romanian boxer

Lucian Bute is a Romanian-Canadian former professional boxer who competed from 2003 to 2017. He held the IBF super-middleweight title from 2007 to 2012, successfully making nine consecutive defenses and reaching a peak ranking of number one in the division by The Ring magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Abraham</span> Armenian-German boxer

Avetik Abrahamyan, best known as Arthur Abraham, is an Armenian-German former professional boxer who competed from 2003 to 2018. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the IBF middleweight title from 2005 to 2009, and the WBO super-middleweight title twice between 2012 and 2016.

Andre Dirrell is an American professional boxer who held the IBF interim super middleweight title from 2017 to 2018. As an amateur, he won a bronze medal in the middleweight division at the 2004 Olympics. His younger brother Anthony Dirrell is also a professional boxer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Froch</span> English boxer

Carl Martin Froch, is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2002 to 2014, and has since worked as a boxing analyst and commentator. He held multiple super-middleweight world championships, including the World Boxing Council (WBC) title twice between 2008 and 2011, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title from 2012 to 2015, and the World Boxing Association (WBA) title from 2013 to 2015. At regional level, he held the British and Commonwealth super-middleweight titles between 2004 and 2008, and won the Lonsdale Belt in 2006. As an amateur, in the middleweight division, Froch won a bronze medal at the 2001 World Championships, and the ABA title twice.

Sakio Bika is a Cameroonian-born Australian professional boxer. He held the WBC super-middleweight title from 2013 to 2014, and previously the IBO super-middleweight title from 2008 to 2010. In 2015 he challenged once for the unified light-heavyweight world title, and in 2007 won the third season of The Contender reality TV series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Geale</span> Australian boxer

Daniel Geale is an Australian former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2016. He held the unified WBA (Super) and IBF middleweight titles between 2011 and 2013, and the IBO middleweight title from 2007 to 2009. As an amateur boxer, Geale won a welterweight gold medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James DeGale</span> British boxer (born 1986)

James Frederick DeGale is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2009 to 2019. He held the IBF super-middleweight title twice between 2015 and 2018, and regionally the European and British super-middleweight titles between 2010 and 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Groves (boxer)</span> British boxer

George Groves is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2008 to 2018. He held the WBA (Super) super-middleweight title from 2017 to 2018. At regional level, he held multiple super-middleweight titles, including the European, British, and Commonwealth titles between 2010 and 2014. As an amateur, Groves won the ABA middleweight title twice in 2007 and 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Super Six World Boxing Classic</span> Boxing competitions

The Super Six World Boxing Classic was a professional boxing tournament organized by the Showtime television network in co-operation with Sauerland Event. The tournament was held from 2009 to 2011, with all fights being contested in the super middleweight division. The winner of the tournament, Andre Ward, unified the WBA, WBC and The Ring Super Middleweight titles.

Boxing in the 2010s includes notable events about boxing which occurred between 2010 and 2019. The decade saw high intensity action in the welterweight division. The match between veterans Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao broke PPV records. The broadcast of the fight in the Philippines was watched by nearly half the country's households. Mayweather retired at a record 50-0-0 while Pacquiao became the first eight division champion. The middleweight division saw immense action in the later years of the decade. After a draw in 2017, Canelo Alvarez ended Gennady Golovkin's long reign in 2018. The heavyweight division was dominated by Klitschko brothers before Wladimir's loss to Tyson Fury in 2015. Other talents that emerged were Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder and undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksander Usyk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Froch vs. Glen Johnson</span> Boxing competition

Carl Froch vs. Glen Johnson was a championship fight for the WBC Super Middleweight championship. The winner of the bout went on to the Finals of the Super Six World Boxing Classic and face WBA Champion Andre Ward, after his decision win over Arthur Abraham in May 2011. It was held on June 4, 2011, at Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States, and televised on Showtime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andre Ward vs. Carl Froch</span> Boxing competition

Andre Ward vs. Carl Froch was the Super Six World Boxing Classic Final championship fight for the WBC, WBA, & vacant The Ring super middleweight titles. The bout was held on December 17, 2011, at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States. and was televised on Showtime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucian Bute vs. Glen Johnson</span> Boxing competition

Lucian Bute vs. Glen Johnson was a boxing Super Middleweight fight for the IBF World title at the Pepsi Coliseum, Quebec City in Canada and will be distributed by Showtime. Bute had hoped to match him with former titleholder Mikkel Kessler of Denmark. When Kessler declined the bout—he will instead challenge titlist Robert Stieglitz on Nov. 5 in Denmark. They then turned to former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, who said he wanted the fight but he also ended up turning down the bout because he was unhappy with the $1.35 million offer he received from Top Rank to challenge Bute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Pascal vs. Lucian Bute</span> Boxing competition

Jean Pascal vs. Lucian Bute was a boxing light heavyweight Diamond championship fight for the vacant WBC Diamond title which took place on January 18, 2014 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The bout, originally slated for May 25, 2013, had to be postponed after Bute underwent surgery to remove bone chips in his left hand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Froch vs. George Groves</span> Boxing competition

Carl Froch vs. George Groves, billed as the Battle of Britain, was a professional boxing match contested on 23 November 2013 at the Manchester Arena. Carl Froch, the defending unified WBA (Regular) and IBF super-middleweight champion, defeated George Groves via technical knockout in the ninth round, although the ending was mired in controversy.

Carl Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler was a championship fight for the World Boxing Council (WBC) Super Middleweight championship on 24 April 2010 in Herning, Denmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler II</span> Boxing competition

Carl Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler II, billed as Warrior's Call, was a professional boxing match between IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch and WBA (Regular) champion Mikkel Kessler. The fight took place on 25 May 2013 at The O2 Arena in London, England, United Kingdom. Froch was declared the winner by unanimous decision.

References

  1. ESPN. ESPN.go.com. Retrieved on 2012-03-02
  2. Boxing Scene. BoxingScene.com. Retrieved on 2012-04-02
  3. Sky Sports. SkySports.com. Retrieved on 2012-04-19
  4. Boxing News 24. BoxingNews24.com. Retrieved on 2012-01-16
  5. "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.
  6. Sports Net Archived 12 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine . SportsNet.ca. Retrieved on 2012-03-21
  7. "Carl Froch hits back at critics".
  8. "Underdog Froch demolishes Bute".
  9. "Froch unhapy about bookmakers having him as the underdog against Bute". Archived from the original on 31 May 2012.
Preceded by Carl Froch's bouts
26 May 2012
Succeeded by
Preceded by Lucian Bute's bouts
26 May 2012
Succeeded by