By Scott Gilfoid: I don’t care if IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (26-0, 21 KO’s) stopped Edison Miranda (33-5, 29 KO’s) in the 3rd round last night. I still think that other super middleweights like Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward and maybe Allan Green are better fighters than Bute. Last Saturday night, Bute had the perfect opponent in front of him with the wide open, weak-chinned Miranda. That guy gave the fight away by coming at Bute with his head bent down like he was begging to be hit with an uppercut.

Bute, being a professional, took full advantage of Miranda’s carelessness by creaming him with a big uppercut right on the jaw that finished him. But I’m not impressed with Bute at all and I still think he has a glass jaw. Just look at the video that I’ve included of Bute’s fight in the 2003 World Championships against Russian Gennady Golovkin. Sure, Bute (wearing red) had his way for a few rounds against Golovkin, but look how Golovkin was able to take him out after standing up to his punches and tapping that glass jaw.

This is all it takes to beat Bute. You just have to hang around a little while and eventually he’ll get overconfident and come in punching range with his jaw ripe for a right hand. That’s when he’ll taken out. Golovkin, now an unbeaten top middleweight contender, really put Bute on his backside with that right hand. This is what I see happening to Bute when he finally faces Dirrell, Ward or Green.

Those guys will get to his chin and put him down for the count. I still don’t understand why Bute didn’t take part in the Super Six tournament. It makes you wonder. Bute turned down the tournament to fight Librado Andrade, a fighter that had already been totally dominated by one of the Super Six tournament contestants Mikkel Kessler. It seems to me that the Super Six tournament would be far more compelling than a rematch with Andade, don’t you think? Come on, Bute had no reason to not fight in the Super Six tournament.

In terms of talent, I place Bute around number #5 or 6 in the super middleweight division, behind fighters like Dirrell, Ward, Green, Kessler, Arthur Abraham, and Carl Froch. I think all or most of those fighters would get to Bute’s chin and take him out at some point in the fight. They also wouldn’t fall over in the first four rounds like Bute’s last three opponents have. Bute would find himself having to fight for his life against these guys.