By Alexey Sukachev and Yuri Tarantin (Allboxing.ru)
There were three common opponents between tonight’s contestants for the IBF super middleweight title. In 2011 both Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KOs) and Lucian Bute (30-0, 24 KOs) fought Glen Johnson, and while Froch struggled against the game veteran to a degree in June, the stylish Roman-Canadian easily outpointed him less than half a year later. The same year saw Bute using his competent bodypunching to score multiple knockdowns against then-EBU beltholder Brian Magee, stopping him in ten. It was Magee’s first loss since being brutally knocked out by an uppercut of… Froch – almost five years before that point.
And finally, there was Sergey Tatevosyan, a skillful fringe contender with savvy knowledge of the sport, who fought both Bute and Froch in the shortest amount of time. Tatevosyan traveled to Canada and lost a lopsided decision to Bute on January 26, 2007, and then he went abroad once again and was stopped by Froch in two on March 23 of the same year. The latest loss was his last and the only one to be suffered inside the distance; Tatevosyan ended his career after that bout.
“Bute is a competent prizefighter, he competes well in the ring, and his team works also enviably well, bringing him quality but winnable opponents”, says Tatevosyan to Allboxing.ru.
“He is a very skillful fighter who mixes technique and huge power into deadly cocktails. The only fact that bothers me is his hard kayo loss to Gennady Golovkin in the amateurs, when Gena knocked him out bad during the 2003 World championship in Bangkok. That was a brutal knockout, and such things just don’t pass without a trace”.
“As for Froch, he has proudly proved his soft spot among the elite. No one has felt good with him in the ring; no one took him the easy way. He is always ready – both psychologically and physically – he hits hard and boxes in an unorthodox way. But at the end of the day I predict the more skilled and quicker Bute to defeat him on points - though it won’t be even close to being remotely easy for him”.
