By Jim Dower: International Boxing Federation super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (25-0, 20 KO’s) will be making his 5th defense of his IBF title on April 17th against super middleweight contender Edison Miranda (33-4, 29 KO’s) at the Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Bute, 29, has mostly dominated since capturing the IBF title in October 2007 with an 11th round stoppage win over Alejandro Berrio.

In October 2008, Bute dodged a bullet when he appeared to be knocked out in the 12th round against challenger Librado Andrade in a fight in which Bute was knocked down in the 12th and was given extra time to get back to his feet. The fight was deeply controversial, yet the results stood. Andrade was forced to fight his way back into another title shot a little over a year later. This time, Andrade was quickly stopped in the 4th round.

Miranda is ranked number #7 by the World Boxing Council super middleweight division, but not at all by the IBF. It’s unclear why Bute is facing Miranda given that the Colombian fighter isn’t ranked in the top 15 by the IBF. There’s very little talent for Bute to face now that the biggest stars in the division are tied up by the Super Six tournament.

That’s actually a good thing for Bute, because he would likely have his hands full if he were forced to fight Arthur Abraham, Carl Froch, Andre Dirrell, Allan Green, Mikkel Kessler, and Andre Ward. Bute might beat some of them, but it’s highly doubtful that he would beat all of them. Bute isn’t a very inside fighter, and is more of a hit and run type boxer. He likes to punch and back away. It’s a style that is frustrating to fight against and somewhat boring to watch.

Bute has problems with his stamina late in his fights and tends to take more punishment the longer his bouts go. He would likely be beaten by Ward, Abraham and Froch. I would give Dirrell, Kessler and Green a good chance of beating him as well.

Bute should do well as long as the Super Six tournament takes place. As soon as it ends, there’s going to be a tremendous amount of pressure to match Bute up against the Super Six series winner. If Bute doesn’t take that fight, he will take a lot of heat by boxing fans. However, if Bute does face the winner, I give him very little chance to beat the series winner.

Miranda has a ton of power, but his hand speed just isn’t there. He’ll struggle against Bute and either get knocked out by him or lose a lopsided 12 round decision. I expect Miranda to lump Bute up a little before the fight is over, but he’s going to struggle to land against Bute, because of the Romanian’s hit and run style of fighting.

Miranda’s best chance of winning is if he can put an enormous amount of pressure on Bute from the outset and try to hit with something big. Miranda has to load up with everything he throws if he wants to win, because he won’t get a lot of chances to land because Bute will be backing away a lot at any hint of aggression from Miranda. This could end up being a real stinker to watch.