By Scott Gilfoid: International Boxing Federation (IBF) super middleweight champion Lucian Bute is picking Andre Ward to beat Carl Froch tonight in the Super Six tournament finals. I guess when it rains it pours, because this is yet another top fighter has come of the woodwork to pick Ward to beat Froch tonight in their battle to determine who the second best fighter is in the division.

I know Froch has been saying this fight will determine who the #1 fighter is in the super middleweight division, but I think Froch is deceiving himself because Bute is still considered the best fighter in the division regardless of who wins the fight tonight in the finals of the Super Six tournament. You can’t talk your way to the number #1 position; you have to beat the top guy in the ring.

That’s why I think it’s silly for Froch and/or Ward to say they’ll be considered the best in the division. No, they won’t, at least not with the majority of the boxing fans. I’m sure some fans will consider the Froch-Ward winner the best, but not the majority. All you have to do is look at how impressive Bute has been looking in mowing down his opposition to see that he’s the number #1 guy right now.

Ward and Froch have been winning their fights, but they haven’t been winning in the same kind of style that Bute has. Bute hasn’t just been winning; he’s been crushing his opponent, and he rarely gets hit. He’s clearly the top guy in the division and will remain so until someone steps up and knocks him off the top of the mountain.

But it is kind of telling that Bute and pretty much the entire boxing world see Ward as the winner of tonight’s fight. It’s almost anticlimactic, really. He’s practically got the Super Six crown on his head already before the fight has even started.