By Dan Ambrose: In yet another mismatch involving IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (28-0, 23 Ko’s), he’ll be facing no. 1 contender Jean Paul Mendy (29-1, 16 KO’s) in a 12 round bout in Bute’s native Romanian at the Romexpo, in Bucharest, Romania.

Bute, 31, is supposed to be ending his habit of facing over-matched opposition later this year in a possible fight against former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, but for the time being, Bute will have one last mismatch against Mendy before stepping it up a couple levels against Pavlilk.

Mendy, 37, is coming into this fight in less than best circumstances having won by a 1st round disqualification against Sakio Bika last year in July. Mendy was knocked down by Bika in the first round but won the fight after Bika tagged Mendy while he was still down. Bika likely would have won the fight by a 1st round knockout had he held back from hitting Mendy while he was down, as Mendy was badly hurt and there was little chance that he was going to be able to make it back up to his feet. Other than that poor fight, Mendy has faced pretty much exclusively B and C level guys his entire career built up a nice looking record filled with fluff. If I was to rank Mendy compared with the other super middleweights, I’d have him buried in the 2nd tier. He’s not a top level fighter as far I’m concerned and this fight is just another one of Bute’s mismatches against weak opposition.

Bute has had it easy since picking up the International Boxing Federation belt in 2007, defending his title seven times against fighters like William Joppy, Brian Magee, Jesse Brinkley, Edison Miranda, Fulgencio Zuniga and Librado Andrade. The fight against Mendy is more of the same for Bute in terms of facing weak opposition. Bute probably should have been knocked out by Andrade in their first fight but was given a strange count by the Canadian referee where he spent time focusing on giving Andrade instructions before finally giving Bute a count after he was knocked down in the 12th.

If Bute takes his time with Mendy, I can see the fight ending in the 2nd round but only if Bute toys with Mendy. If he lands anything with power, the fight will end with Mendy flat on his back.