By Luke Furman

Bell Centre, Montreal, Canada - Stephan Larouche, trainer of former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-2, 24KOs), offered no explanation on why his boxer was unable to let his hands go for much of his contest with Jean Pascal (29-2-1, 17KOs). Bute finally opened up in the twelfth and final round, and had Pascal in some trouble. But it was too late, as Pascal won on scores of 116-112, 118-110, 117-111.

"Pascal managed to make it his fight. He was more explosive than Lucian, who never found his rhythm. Jean was better. You can not win a fight with one arm. Lucian is good when he uses both hands. You can not win a fight by being careful the whole time. I have no explanation. I'm sad. We worked so hard. This is not a good night for us," Larouche said.

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org