Mofo2 Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 Lucian Bute will not be a success up at light-heavyweight, thanks largely to the battering he took from Carl Froch. That is the opinion of Tony Bellew, who himself failed to win a world title in the division and has now moved up to cruiserweight. Bute fights up at 175lbs for only the second time on Saturday night when he takes on another Froch victim, Jean Pascal, in Montreal, live and exclusive on Sky Sports 1. Both Canadians were beaten in sensational super-middleweight showdowns with Froch but with Bute being battered in just four rounds in May 2012 and having only fought once since, Bellew believes it has left permanent scars on the 33-year-old. "Don't get me wrong, this is a really good fight but I am afraid I think Bute is a little bit 'damaged goods'," he said. "That Froch defeat was a real damaging fight. "Carl had a similar one with Pascal but that one with him and Bute was a different level. It was a catastrophic loss for Lucian - and I don't see how he is going to come back from that. "I think making weight damaged him a fair bit at super-middleweight and when you add to that the manner of the loss, I just have a feeling he might have fallen out of love with boxing. "It's a tough business to be involved with, even if you haven't had such a crushing defeat and it is going to take him time." Puncher The Haiti-born fighter was out-pointed by Froch in a bruising Super Six showdown back in December 2008 and, like Bute, had one more fight at super-middleweight before moving up. But Pascal has now had eight fights at his new weight and was the WBC champion until he drew with, then lost to, Bernard Hopkins. "Pascal makes an awful lot of mistakes but usually his power covers it up and he gets away with it," said Bellew. "Bute is a good puncher, too, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see both of them going down. "I just think Pascal has a little bit more youth on his side and I just think he is a little bit better seasoned than Bute. "When the going gets tough I have seen Bute turn away in a couple of fights; he did it in the Librado Andrade fight, then against Froch and again, in his last fight against [Denis] Grachev. He looked vulnerable. "One thing about Pascal, he is very strong. He is always fit, he is an outstanding athlete, but he is also very reckless and his technical ability isn't that good but he makes up for it in heart." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Slayer Posted January 17, 2014 Members Share Posted January 17, 2014 His technical ability isn't so good? Better than yours, wally! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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