By Dave Lahr: World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (25-0, 20 KOs) is eyeing Bernard Hopkins for a possible bout in September. Froch, 31, is also looking at a unification bout with IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute as well.

After fighting most of his seven year pro career in obscurity in England against lesser fighters, Froch suddenly rose to popularity with a 12th round knockout against former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor in April.

Now Froch is looking to cash in with a big money fight against either Hopkins or Bute in September. Both Hopkins and Bute are pure boxers and much faster than Froch in terms of hand speed. Beating either of them would likely have to be by knockout, because Froch doesn’t appear to have the boxing skills to win a decision against them.

Froch has a number of options other than those two, but if he wants to make the most money, Bute or Hopkins is the way to go right now. Fighting Hopkins would be tough, because it would mean that Hopkins would be moving down in weight to take the fight.

Hopkins would likely remove a lot of water weight to make the weight but would very likely gain a lot of water weight back after the weigh in. Froch would be the smaller fighter, and the slower fighter, meaning that he’d have to try to catch Hopkins with a big shot if he had any hope of knocking him out.

Looking at the ease of which Hopkins handled WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision in October, it would seem like a long shot that Froch would be able to do any better in the fight.

Froch would likely have just as much problems against a fighter like Bute, who is quite skilled defensively and very hard to hit. Bute is a lot faster than Froch with about the same kind of power. Froch hasn’t fought anyone close to being as good as Bute and it would be a tough fight for Froch to be competitive in.

Froch would have to go right at Bute and hope that he can catch him with a big shot because he would be wiped out otherwise.

Hopkins is the fight that Froch should consider taking if he wants to get attention, because this would be a big fight potentially and one that Hopkins would be interested in.