By Sean McDaniel: As of now, the prospective dates for the two-fights between IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (29-0, 24 KO’s) and Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) are April 2012 in Montreal, Canada for the first fight, and then the second fight occurring in August 2012 in Nottingham, England. These are the two dates that are reportedly being worked out as part of the two-fight deal between Froch and Bute for 2012.

It sounds interesting because we could see two highly competitive fights between two top fighters in the super middleweight division. But this could potentially be really bad for one of them if the loser gets beaten in both fights, in particular if it’s one-sided fights like Froch’s recent 12 round unanimous decision loss to Andre Ward last week.

Bute doesn’t have Ward’s speed or the same excellent defensive ability, so it’s going to be difficult for him to dominate Froch in either of these two fights. At the same token, Froch was pretty well exposed in the Ward and Andre Dirrell fights as having poor footwork, limited hand speed and huge defensive flaws. He’s going to have a hard time beating Bute by a decision if he’s plodding after him and taking shots to the head in both fights.

Froch may need to knock Bute out in order for him to win these fights because he’s likely going to get out-boxed by the faster Bute, who uses a hit and run style of fighting when facing serious threats. Bute does tire when he’s moving a lot, though, and that’s a good sign that Froch may have a decent chance of chasing him down and scoring a knockout at some point.

Froch hasn’t shown a lot of power in his recent fights in the Super Six tournament, but he may not need huge power to take Bute out. We saw a lesser puncher in LIbrado Andrade badly hurt Bute in 2008 and put him on the canvas. Froch can possibly do that if he can keep the pressure on Bute for the entire fight to wear him down.