By Dan Ambrose: IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute reportedly has his eyes on facing the winner of the October 29th Super Six finals bout between WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch and WBA champion Andre Ward. Bute prefers to take on the winner of this fight, but wills settle for fighting the loser if that’s all he can get out of them.

It may very well be that Bute has to settle for taking on the loser, because Ward’s trainer Virgil Hunter already made it clear that Ward doesn’t plan on fighting Bute next. Ward will be looking to fight Mikkel Kessler in a rematch rather than fighting the still unproven Bute. Hunter said he wants Bute to prove himself by beating his next opponent Glen Johnson on November 5th, and then taking on and beating Froch followed by Arthur Abraham.

If Bute can win all those fights, then Hunter feels that Bute will have proven that he belongs in the same ring with a talent like Ward. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Bute has held the International Boxing Federation belt for the past three years but his opposition has been limited to William Joppy, Fulgencio Zuniga, Librado Andrade, Edison Miranda, Jesse Brinkley, Brian Magee and Jean Paul Mendy. Those are all fringe level contenders and not in the same league as the Super Six tourney fighters that Ward has been wiping out since 2009.

Fighting the loser of the Froch vs. Ward fight would still be putting Ward in with someone that will likely beat him, because Bute won’t be able to beat Froch with his usual pot shots and he won’t even come close to hurting Ward. Bute doesn’t have an inside fighting game, and that’s going to make it incredibly tough to beat Ward when the times comes. Bute matches up a lot better with Froch, but even that’s going to be a very tough fight for Bute because Froch isn’t the typical short opponent that Bute has been facing for the past three years.