By Jim Dower: James “Lights out” Toney (72-6-3, 44 KO’s) thinks that International Boxing Federation super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (26-0, 21 KO’s) would beat 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KO’s), according to an interview by Percy Crawford of FightHype. Hopkins is apparently interested in fighting Bute, and turning him into a “Canadian Kelly Pavlik.” The 41-year-old Toney says “Bute would knock Bernard Hopkins out…He saw something in Bute and wanted that fight. After last night [referring to Bute’s 3rd round TKO win over Edison Miranda last weekend], he may be asking for a Pavlik rematch. He’s not going to want anything to do with Bute.”

I tend to agree with Toney. Hopkins has been strangely silent about a potential fight with Bute since the Canadian based former Romanian amateur star defeated Miranda. Hopkins didn’t look good against Roy Jones Jr. in his fight with him on April 3rd. Bute would be a very tough fight for Hopkins, because Bute isn’t the kind of fighter that can be contained or beaten by Hopkins’ punch and clinch technique that he’s adopted in the last five years of his career.

Bute is an excellent inside fighter and would likely tear Hopkins apart in close if he tries to fight on the inside all night. Hopkins best and perhaps only chance at beating Bute would be to use movement and try to fight him in brief spurts like he did against Pavlik. However, Hopkins would have to work hard to win using that style, because Bute would be fighting three minutes of every round and there wouldn’t be any chances for rest breaks for Hopkins to get a break from the action. Bute could very well make Hopkins look his age if they were to fight.