Carl Froch vs. Lucian Bute

No Easy Way Out
Date	26 May 2012
Location	Capital FM Arena, Nottingham, England
Title(s) on the line	IBF Super Middleweight Championship
Tale of the tape
Carl Froch Lucian Bute Nickname The Cobra Le Tombeur Mister KO Hometown Nottingham, England Pechea, Romania Pre-fight record 28-2 (20 KO) 30-0-0 (24 KO) Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) Weight 167 lbs 167 Recognition IBF's number 1 contender and the mandatory challenger 2-time former WBC Super Middleweight Champion IBF Super Middleweight Champion
Result
Froch beats Bute by KO in 5th round

Carl Froch vs. Lucian Bute, billed as No Easy Way Out, was a championship fight for Bute's IBF Super Middleweight title. The bout was held on 26 May 2012, at the Capital FM Arena in Nottingham, England.^[1]

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 has 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, 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

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.

"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][10]}

Fight card

• 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
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. 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.
6. Sports Net. 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.".
10. "Froch annihilates unbeaten Bute". Daily Mail. London. 2012-05-27.

External links

• Carl Froch vs. Lucian Bute Official Fight Card from BoxRec