By Dan Ambrose: After three years of taking on one soft challenger after another, IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (29-0, 24 KO’s) will be facing his first halfway decent opponent in 42-year-old Glen Johnson (51-15-2, 35 KO’s) on November 5th at the Pepsi Coliseum, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

For the 31-year-old Bute, this is a huge step up from the fodder that’s been consistently fed to him by his management. However, Johnson, 42, is still very limited and showing serious signs of decline, so this really isn’t the risky fight that it would have been had Bute fought Johnson five years ago when he was a little younger.

Bute no doubt recognizes that he’s got a lot of boxing fans that are critical of his soft opposition and perhaps to quiet the critics, Bute wants to make an example out of Johnson by stopping him inside the distance. The chances of that happening are slim and none, though, because Bute’s only real knockout punch is his uppercut and that’s a punch that good fighters can easily block. However, against the weak opposition that Bute has been fighting for the past three years, he’s knocking most of them out with that punch.

Don’t count him doing anything in that department against Johnson, and if Bute does get uppercut happy, he could get knocked himself. He’s become far too predictable with that punch and reminds me of a fighter that after learning one move in the ring, goes to that same move over and over again. Like I said, it works for Bute but only because he’s facing god awful opposition, guys that really have no business being ranked in the top 15, let alone top 10.

Bute should have a knockout loss on his record due to his long count win over Librado Andrade in October 2009. Bute’s Canadian fans feel it was a win, but fans who don’t have any emotions invested in the outcome saw Bute getting knocked out and being given a long count to get back to his feet. That fight showed that Bute is vulnerable if you can get to his chin. The problem is he’s hard to hit because he’s quick to back away if his opponents try and land anything.

This is why it’s important to hit him with jabs on the outside, block his uppercuts when he goes to this repetitive weapon and light him up after you take away his main weapon. Without his uppercut, Bute is a pretty simple fighter. He is hard to beat at home, however, and hopefully we don’t see another long count victory for him. Bute should win this fight because Johnson is starting to look shot, losing two out of his last three fights. Johnson should be shot enough for Bute to win, but if Johnson lands something big we could see an interesting fight.