By Dan Ambrose: Having been rejected by Kelly Pavlik for a fight due to the money offer being too low, IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (29-0, 24 KO’s) will reportedly be fighting 42-year-old contender Glen Johnson (51-15-2, 35 KO’s) on November 5th in Quebec, Canada.

Sadly, this is a step up for Bute in terms of competition, as he’s been facing mediocre opponents since capturing the International Boxing Federation title three years ago in 2008. Bute has done zero since then other than facing middle of the road opposition over and over again.

Johnson seems to fit perfectly with the guys that Bute has been fighting, but he’s definitely a step up even though he’s lost three out of his last five fights and is coming off a one-sided 12 round loss to WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch in the Super Six semi-finals bout last June.

Compared to the listless opposition that Bute has been matched up with recently, Johnson is worlds’ better. He at least can take an uppercut without hitting the deck like Bute’s opponents have been doing recently. He can also handle body shots as well. This is a good fight because at least Johnson will be able to stick around for the full 12 and test Bute’s chin every once in a while. Who knows? Maybe Johnson will land a big shot and take Bute out. I kind of doubt it, though, because Bute likes to hit and run when he faces anyone with even a hint of power like Johnson. It’s probably going to be a frustrating fight to watch with Bute landing, and then running away. Hopefully Johnson can time him as he’s coming forward and knock him cold so we can get some interesting fights coming out of the IBF.

Although Bute is technically undefeated, you really have to put an asterisk by his first victory over Librado Andrade. That was the fight in which Bute received a long count after being knocked down in the 12th. I counted 15 seconds, and I guess that would mean Bute should have been knocked out in that fight. He was fighting in Canada at the time, which was a home fight for Bute.

In Bute’s last fight he took out his No.1 contender Jean Paul Mendy in the 4th round in July. How and why the IBF had the 37-year-old Mendy listed as the number 1 contender is the big question. Mendy had only fought one 1st tier fighter during his career and that was against Sakio Bika, who flattened Mendy in the 1st round. However, Bika got a little carried away and landed another shot while Mendy was down and ended up being disqualified. That was Mendy’s fight right before the Bute bout. It’s so sad but par for the course for Bute, as he’s been such a disappointing champion.