By Dan Ambrose: IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (28-0, 23 KO’s) will be making his 8th title defense of his International Boxing Federation strap against 37-year-old #1 ranked IBF contender Jean Paul Mendy (29-0-1, 16 KO’s) on July 9th at the Romexpo, in Bucharest, Romania.

Although Mendy is ranked #1 by the IBF, he’s not all that good stands no chance in this fight. At best, Mendy is a bottom 20 fighter, not a number #1 guy. In his last fight against Sakio Bika in July last year, Bika knocked Mendy down in the 1st round but then hit him while he was down. Mendy was hurt and the fight was stopped and Mendy given a disqualification victory. Had Bika not hit Mendy while he was on the canvas, it would have likely been over very shortly, if Mendy could even get up. I doubt he would have. This is a horrible fight, one of Bute’s poorer ones.

The knock on Bute is that he’s fought largely weak opposition since picking up his IBF title in 2007. And looking at the guys that Bute has fought, it’s hard to argue with that. Bute has defended his title against Librado Andrade, who appeared to knock Bute out in their first fight in 2008, only to have the referee give Bute more time to get up by focusing on Andrade instead of starting the count. Bute has also fought Fulgencio Zuniga, Edison Miranda, Jesse Brinkley, Brian Magee and 38-year-old William Joppy. That’s it. Bute has had an easy time as the IBF champion. Hopefully, that will end when he’s someday matched against guys like Mikkel Kessler, Kelly Pavlik, Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell, Carl Froch and Glen Johnson.

The Mendy fight will be held in Bute’s home country of Romania. It doesn’t matter where the fight takes place, though. Bute wins this no matter where it’s held. Mendy, a fighter from France, has faced 2nd tier opposition his entire career and not always shined against this level opposition. He fought to a draw against Anthony Hanshaw in 2007, which for a while was Mendy’s best opponent of his career until he stepped it up last year and was quickly dropped by Sakio Bika in the 1st round. Like I said, Mendy was on his way to being knocked out had Bika not nailed him once he was down.

Bute is a disappointing champion to say the least. He reminds me a lot of WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm, who has made a nice career milking his title against opposition and failing to make big fights. Bute is 31 now and still hasn’t faced a live body. How sad.