By Scott Gilfoid: It may be upsetting to IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (29-0 24 KO’s) and his promoter that he’s not being given an automatic fight against the Super Six tournament winner WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (25-0, 13 KO’s), but you can understand why the fights’ not taking place if you follow Ward’s gripes he has about giving Bute a fight.

While Ward has been working hard for the past two years in the Super Six tournament beating guys like Arthur Abraham, Mikkel Kessler, Carl Froch and Allan Green, Bute has been tucked away safely in Canada beating up on he likes of Librado Andrade, Edison Miranda, Jesse Brinkley, Brian Magee, Jean Paul Mendy and Glen Johnson. Bute’s fans say he’s beaten what was out there and shouldn’t be blamed for his lackluster competition.

Fair enough, but he’s still has more work ahead of him to prove that he belongs in the same ring with Ward. It’s easy nowadays for fighters to build up impressive records when they’re matched against 2n and 3rd tier opposition for most of their career. As far as Bute’s record goes, he’s faced one good fighter in Sakio Bika. The rest of them were either mediocre or old. Bute’s last opponent Glen Johnson is 42; ; William Joppy was 38. In terms of competitiveness, Bute’s toughest fight of his career came against Librado Andrde, a fighter that Kessler completely dominated in winning every round of a 12 round fight. Andrade had Bute on the deck in their first fight in October 2008 and likely should have been given a knockout win in that fight.

Ward said this about Bute “I don’t want to disrespect Bute, but he sat back and waited facing B and C level guys while I was fighting against tough Super Six guys. In my opinion he needs to beat an A level guy before fighting me. He doesn’t deserve the chance.”

Ward is fight. It would be wrong to reward Bute with a fight against the Super Six winner given that he hasn’t faced anyone of merit. It would almost be like Ward had fought all these guys just to get to Bute, as if he’s the king of the division instead of someone that has faced largely weaker opposition compared to Ward in the past two years. I think Ward is being perfectly reasonable in asking Bute to at least fight an A level fighter and beat him to earn a shot against him. And I don’t think fighting just Carl Froch is enough for Bute to earn a shot against Ward. Froch looked like an old man in losing to Ward, and it wasn’t even competitive.

Bute needs to beat not only Froch, but also Mikkel Kessler and Andre Dirrell or his brother Anthony Dirrell before he should be given a fight against Ward. You’ve got to make the guy earn it. Don’t just give it to him on a silver platter after all those soft fights he’s taken. Make the man earn it for once.