By Jason Kim: After last night’s impressive 3rd round TKO win for International Boxing Federation super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (26-0, 21 KO’s) over Edison Miranda (33-5, 29 KO’s), Bute mentioned 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KO’s) as one of his potential next opponents to face. Hopkins has made it known that he’d be interested in fighting the 30-year-old Bute. Hopkins is coming off of a 12 round unanimous decision over Roy Jones Jr. on April 3rd, a fight which Hopkins didn’t exactly impress.

After the fight, there were a lot of boxing fans who felt that Hopkins should hang up the gloves and retire from the sport. Hopkins, however, wants no part of retirement and wants to continue with his career and fight the best possible opponents. Hopkins had this to say about Bute in an interview at Boxing Talk:

“If he [Bute] 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.” Hopkins, as many people already know, dominated Pavlik, beating him by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision in October 2008.

Hopkins now wants to fight Bute so he can make Bute as bad as he made Pavlik look in beating him two years ago. This would be an interesting fight for boxing fans. Hopkins is still one of the best fighters in all of the sport and very clever. Whatever he’s lost in the way of physical skills, he’s more than made up with ring smarts. If there’s anyone in boxing that can beat Bute, it might be Hopkins. He doesn’t show interest in fighting someone unless he’s absolutely certain he can beat them.

Hopkins obviously has spotted some flaws with Bute and figures he can exploit them in a match. Right now, Bute is considered to be the best fighter in the super middleweight division and is ranked number #1 by The Ring. Hopkins, for his part, was the best middleweight in the division for a 10 year period from 1995 to 2005. Hopkins has moved up to light heavyweight, but he’s still considered by many to be the number #1 fighter at that weight class.

Bute has taken out his last three opponents – Fulgencio Zuniga, Librado Andrade and Miranda – and seems to be getting stronger as his career progresses. Strange as it may seem, Bute is becoming something of a puncher now that he’s hit 30. However, Hopkins has an excellent chin and can take any kind of punishment without going down. The shots that Bute has been taking opponents out lately, they’d likely have to effect on Hopkins.

Bute could find himself deep in the fight having to fight while he’s tired like he did in his controversial 12 round decision over Andrade in their first fight in 2008. Bute was dropped in that fight and barely beat the count to get the win. Hopkins will probably be still fighting hard late in the bout and could land something big enough to take Bute out. I don’t see Bute being able to hurt Hopkins. This would mean that Bute would have to find a way to beat Hopkins by decision. Given that Hopkins is good at smothering his opponents’ offense, it’s very possible that Hopkins could shut Bute down as well and beat him by a decision or possibly a knockout if Bute gets tired late in the fight.