Bute still heading towards Froch bout on April 14th, wants Andre Ward in the Summer

By Scott Gilfoid: According to Dan Rafael and Fightnews, IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (29-0, 24 KO’s) is still being pushed forward towards an April 14th showdown with the recently beaten former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) in Montreal, Canada.

However, Showtime doesn’t have much interest in televising a fight between Bute and Froch, likely because of Froch’s recent showing against Ward. American’s generally don’t get excited about seeing fighters get handed title shots after they’ve been badly schooled like Froch was in his 12 round unanimous decision loss to WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward last month in the Super Six tournament finals on December 17th.

Bute is under contract with Showtime and they want to see Bute face the best possible opponent for his next fight, and not have Bute fighting another susceptible opponent. According to fightnews, Bute’s promoter Jan Bedard, the president of InterBox, says they will look to put together the Bute-Froch fight with Showtime or without Showtime televising the fight if need be, saying “We have to do everything in our power to make the fight with Froch. We owe this fight to our fans. Apparently, SHOWTIME’s preference was for Bute to fight Dirrell but they didn’t want that fight.

Here’s my take: I can understand why Bute and his promoters would prefer the Froch fight rather than Dirrell. Froch is better known in Canada because of his previous fight with Jean Pascal in December 2008, which took place in Froch’s home city of Nottingham, England. Froch also was around a little longer in the Super Six tournament compared to Dirrell, because Dirrell had to pull out of the tournament after being injured in his fight with Arthur Abraham in 2010.

But I think a BIG factor in Bute and InterBox wanting Froch rather than Dirrell is because Froch is made to order for Bute. Froch is one of those come forward slow guys that Bute has fought and done well against his entire career. Froch is easy to hit and thus easy to outbox. You can’t say the say the same thing about Dirrell, who does everything that Bute does but much better with greater hand speed, defensive ability, jab and a better right hand. Bute’s style of fighting would be much less effective against Dirrell because of his speed and it would be very hard for Bute to shine against a guy Dirrell.

So, I see this as merely more of the same soft matchmaking for Bute. His entire career has pretty much been that of him facing slow, stationary guys like Froch and when he finally had the chance to break from that mold and fight Dirrell, they STILL opted to fight Froch even though he lost his last fight.
Bute wants Ward in the summer after the Froch fight. However, Ward had something to say about that on Dan Rafael’s twitter, saying “Don’t believe I don’t want the fight. Bute doesn’t call the shots, period!”
It doesn’t look like Bute will fight Dirrell even after be beats Froch in April. That’s kind of sad, because Bute will simply follow Ward and Dirrell’s blueprint in how to beat Froch and pound out a 12 round decision in Canada. Froch is kidding himself if thinks he can win a decision over there. That’s not going to happen and he’ll have to score a knockout to win in my view. But I think this is the best we can hope for from Bute.

If Ward doesn’t fight Bute in the summer, then Bute will probably look to fight someone else rather than the dangerous Dirrell brothers and we’ll likely see Bute going after someone like Robert Stieglitz, even if he’s coming off of an April loss to Mikkel Kessler. As we’re seeing with Froch, it doesn’t seem to matter if a fighter has just lost, Bute will go ahead and fight them anyway. But it doesn’t look like Bute’s promoter wants any part of Dirrell. No word was mentioned about Anthony Dirrell, who I assume would be lumped in the same class as his brother Andre. If I’m Ward, I wouldn’t let Bute dictate to me when the fight will take place. If Bute wants Ward, then he’s got to fight both Dirrell brothers and beat them because I wouldn’t count a win over the beaten Froch as Bute having earned a shot against me. That’s just more of the same old cherry picking we’ve seen from Bute in his last three years as the IBF champion.

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