By Phil D. Jay
Stephan Larouche, the trainer of former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-1, 24KOs), admits that his fighter will have to re-evaluate his career after a comprehensive defeat to Carl Froch (29-2, 21KOs) in his first world-class test.
Bute, 31, was out-classed by the three-time world champion from midway through the first round and Larouche told Sky Sports Ed Robinson that his fighter just wasn’t allowed to get his gameplan going by a determined Froch.
“Lucian is doing alright. He’s just got some stiches in his left eye,” said Larouche. “We needed a good start. We needed a good first few rounds to get our rhythm going but unfortunately we couldn’t as Carl came out strong at the end of the first round and caught Lucian in the second and he couldn’t recover from that moment.
“It was a good stoppage (by the referee), although maybe a little late. As of now we need to sit down with Lucian. We are not going to shout about a rematch after a loss. We are intelligent people. We look after Lucian’s health and his future. We will go back to the drawing board. It is not the end of the world but we have to analyse what went wrong.
“Lucian made some mistakes tonight and paid a high price for that and I am sure he will come back stronger.”
‘Le Tombeur’ has a rematch option for September on home soil, although it remains to be seen whether the Canadian-Romanian will exercise the clause in the contract and attempt to avenge his bruising defeat.
