By Allen Fox: Next month 42-year-old Glen Johnson (51-15-2, 35 KO’s) faces IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (29-0, 24 KO’s) at the Pepsi Coliseum, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Johnson feels he can handle Bute from having sparred with him in the past and gotten the better of the transplanted Romanian.

Johnson said “I don’t need to spar with a fighter to know that I can beat him. Yes, I trained with Bute in the past. Yes, we had good sparring together and yes I’m very confident I can beat this guy…It’s a do or die situation for me.”

It may not be quite as easy as sparring for Johnson, though, because Bute won’t be making it easy for him by just standing in front of him begging to exchange. Since capturing the International Boxing Federation title in 2007, Bute has been a hit and run type of fighter. Only recently has Bute started to sit down on his shots to produce knockouts. Before that, Bute would hit and run and wear his opponents down over the course of the fight. Bute will attempt to score a knockout against Johnson most likely, but if he gets hit hard or if the KO isn’t coming, Bute will quickly fall back into his old hit and run style and look to win a 12 round decision.

Bute said “After this fight, I want to fight the Super Six winner.”

Bute may or may not get a chance at the Super Six tourney winner. Andre Ward, who faces Carl Froch in the Super Six finals, already mentioned that he won’t bother facing Bute. Ward wants a more established super middleweight, someone like Mikkel Kessler. Bute’s best chance of fighting the Super Six winner is if Froch wins the tourney. He’s interested in facing Bute, although apparently not all that excited about that fight because he doesn’t see Bute as for real.