By Jim Dower: Having failed in his attempt to land a fight with World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye, Bernard Hopkins, 45, has shifted his attention to the super middleweight division and is now setting his sights on IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (25-0, 20 KO’s).

Hopkins is coming off a poor performance against Roy Jones Jr. on April 3rd, in a fight in which both he and Jones looked and fought their age. In an interview by Greg Leon of Boxing Talk, Hopkins had this to say about fighting Bute: “170 pounds. I’ve done it with Kelly Pavlik and Winky Wright. The lowest I can go is 170 and that makes it a win-win for Bute because after he loses he still has his belt, just like Kelly Pavlik. If he takes care of business against Edison Miranda, which he should, I’ll help him get a legend on his record and based on how I win that fight, he’ll help me create a Canadian Kelly Pavlik. It’s a no-brainer, Bute and his people have to want a real challenge though, they can’t keep fighting the Andrade’s and Miranda’s of the world, so hopefully they want to step it up.”

That’s pretty confident talk from Hopkins. However, Bute is nothing like the more one-dimensional Kelly Pavlik. Hopefully, Hopkins can see the differences between the two of them, because Bute and Pavlik are at the different ends of the spectrum in terms of fighting style, hand speed and power. Pavlik is a bigger puncher, doesn’t move well, had poor defense and can’t change directions very well. Bute, on the other hand, has good hand speed, constantly is in motion and doesn’t hang around for long after delivering his shots.

Bute has a fight coming up on April 17th against the hard punching Edison Miranda. Bute is expected to win that fight. However, Bute had problems with pressure fighter Librado Andrade two years ago in 2008, beating him by a 12 round decision but getting knocked down in the 12th round. That fight was a controversial one because Bute was given extra time after getting knocked down to get back to his feet, and many people thought that he should have been counted out. Bute has improved since that fight, and he easily beat Andrade in the rematch in a 4th round stoppage. In March 2009, Bute stopped the normally durable Fulgencio Zuniga in a 4th round stoppage.

The way that Hopkins has looked in his last two fights against Roy Jones Jr. and Enrique Ornelas it’s doubtful that he would beat a fighter as good as Bute. Although Hopkins mentions Bute in the same breath as Pavlik, he’s talking apples and oranges. Hopkins doesn’t look like the same fighter he was two years ago, and Bute is not Kelly Pavlik. I think Hopkins would lose to Bute even two years ago, but right now, see Bute totally dominating him and making Hopkins look old. The fight will probably be filled with fouls and other such nonsense, unfortunately. I just hope Hopkins can stay on his feet in this one. In his fights with Joe Calzaghe and Roy Jones Jr., Hopkins has been on the canvas for a lot for low blows and head butts.