By Eric Thomas: The management for International Boxing Federation (IBF) super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (29-0, 23 KO’s) has contacted IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud (23-0, 19 KO’s) to gauge his interested in a fight for November at a catchweight with Cloud’s title likely being on the line for the fight.

Bute, 31, has already been rejected by former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, who declined the fight because the money wasn’t good enough. With few other fighters showing interest in taking on Bute at this time – at least until the Super Six finalists Andre Ward and Carl Froch are done with the tournament – Bute is now looking at trying to land Cloud for November.

Although Cloud clearly isn’t the top fighter in the light heavyweight division, he’s still around the #5 guy, which would a big step up from the mediocre opponents that Bute has been defending his IBF title against for the past three years. Indeed, Cloud is a lot better than the guys that Bute has been fighting, and that’s not all because there hasn’t been better opponents to fight. There’s been a lot of soft picks made for Bute since he captured the belt. It’s nice to see Bute finally stepping it up after all these years. It’s too bad he’s wasted three years fighting soft opposition.

Cloud has held the IBF title since 2009 after beating Clinton Woods for the strap. He’s held the title since then, defending it three times against Glen Johnson, Fugencio Zuniga and Yusaf Mack. These are pretty much the same types of opposition that Bute has been defending his belt against, but Cloud has looked terrible for the most part in each of his fights. There’s something missing with the guy. He’s got good speed and power, but his defense is just horrible. He gets hit way too much for his own good, and this causes a lot of his fights to be a lot closer than they should be.