By Jason Kim: Former International Boxing Federation (IBF) light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson (51-15-2, 35 KO’s) thinks the recent low offer made to him by the team of IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (29-0, 24 KO’s) has more to do with his management wanting to protect him from threats that could potentially beat him than it is as a sign that Johnson’s not worth it.

In a press release sent out today from Johnson’s management, it was reported that Johnson was offered was more than $1 million dollars less than the $1.35 million that was offered – and rejected – by former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik for a fight in November. Johnson feels that Bute’s promoters want to shield him from threats, saying “They want to keep him safe.They don’t have the confidence in him they should have.”

Apparently, Johnson and Bute sparred in the past and Johnson did very well in the sparring session. It would be interesting to know how long ago that was, because Johnson didn’t look very good in his recent 12 round decision loss to WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch on June 4th in the Super Six tournament. Johnson threw few punches and was soundly beaten. This is in contrast to the good performance that Johnson put in his fight before that in the Super Six tournament in beating Allan Green by an 8th round TKO in November 2010.

Johnson’s promoter Leon Margules of Warrior Boxing thinks that Bute needs to step it up a level already. It’s hard to disagree with him on that, because that’s been the knock on Bute since he captured the IBF title in 2008. For some reason, Bute hasn’t been put in with any real significant opponents. Thus far he’s faced William Joppy, Edison Miranda, Brian Magee, Jean Paul Mendy, Fulgencio Zuniga and Librado Andrade. That’s not exactly tough opposition, as none of them are really dangerous guys and are badly flawed. You can make an argument that Bute was knocked out in his first fight against Andrade in November 2009 after Bute was given an extended amount of time to get up from a knockdown after being dropped in the 12th.

It’s doubtful that Johnson’s offer will be bumped up enough to satisfy him. If it’s off by a million from what Pavlik received, Johnson may feel slighted if it’s not pushed considerably higher than what it is now, even though he’s coming off of a loss to Froch and has lost in three out of his last five fights.