By Scott Gilfoid: Jean Bedard, the promoter for former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s), is thinking of staging the soon to be 33-year-old Bute’s next fight on May 25th in Bucharest, Romanian. The idea is to have the fight take place on the same date as the mini-mega fight between IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch and WBA champion Mikkel Kessler.
Bute will likely be fighting for the vacant WBC super middleweight title against the winner of the February 16th fight between Nikola Sjekloca (25-0, 7 KO’s) and Sakio Bika (30-5-2, 21 KO’s).
Bedard said to lapresse.ca “Our priority is to fight for the WBC World championship belt.”
If Bute can capture the World Boxing Council 168 title, it’ll put him in a much better negotiating position for when he faces Froch in a rematch. Having a title belt in his possession will definitely help Bute get a better deal, and it’ll also help him if Froch loses to Kessler on May 25th because Froch will then be coming into the rematch with Bute without any position to bargain.
Froch wouldn’t have a title and would be coming off of a hard loss, likely still licking his wounds from the hard fight.
The reason why Bedard is interested in staging Bute’s next fight in Romania is because that’s where Bute was originally from, and he’s got a huge fan base over there. Since a Bute-Bika or Bute-Sjekloca fight isn’t a real big deal like Bute-Froch II, it makes sense to stage it in Bucharest rather than Montreal, Canada, where Bute now lives and fights out of.
The Bute vs. Froch II fight will definitely take place in Montreal in the Bell Centre, and it’ll make Bute a lot of cash. Bute routinely sells out the 15,000 seat Bell Centre, and I would expect the same would happen for his rematch with Froch. If Froch thinks his Nottingham crowd made a lot of noise then he should wait until he get a load of what’s in store for him when he walks into the lion’s den at the Bell Centre in front of 15,000 Bute fans.
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