By Scott Gilfoid: Showtime reportedly isn’t interested in airing IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute’s hoped for fight against recently beaten former super middleweight champion Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) on April 14th.

It’s unknown if Bute will sign for the fight anyway and go without Showtime. However, he needs to get a clue and dump the not so brilliant idea of facing Froch and look to fight an American, which is what Showtime wants. I don’t blame Showtime for not wanting to put on the Froch-Bute fight. Why keep giving Bute air time against guys that aren’t doing well. Showtime needs to show the best and let their product sink to the lowest common denominator just because the fight will make Bute some money.

What Bute needs is to fight Andre Dirrell, his brother Anthony Dirrell or WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins next. The Dirrell brothers should be Bute’s first choice, as WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward has already given Bute advise about him needing to beat one of the Dirrell brothers in order to get a shot against him.

I have no idea why Bute ignored that advice and looked to set up a fight against the guy that Ward just beat in 34-year-old Froch. I guess old habits of picking out weak opposition to fight are hard to break for Bute, but that’s not how you prove yourself that you deserve a fight against Ward.

Bute has already had three solid years of soft fight as the International Boxing Federation champion and Ward wants to see him finally face some quality fighters before he’ll waste time fighting him. Fighting Ward’s leftovers like Froch isn’t how Bute can prove himself. He needs to fight Andre or Anthony Dirrell to show that he can beat an A level fighter.

The one problem that immediately will get in the way of Bute facing Andre Dirrell is the fact that Andre isn’t ranked in the top 15 by the IBF or any of the sanctioning bodies due to his long layoff. However, that’s something that can be quickly rectified by the IBF pushing Dirrell to No.15 for the fight to be made.

If not, then Bute can always face Andre’s brother Anthony Dirrell, who has got amazing speed, power and excellent defensive skills. Anthony has got the whole package plus pinpoint accuracy. This is the fight that Bute should be trying to get, not a fight against the already twice beaten Froch.

What good is that fight other than just another easy mark for Bute. Andre Dirrell, Mikkel Kessler and Ward have already created the blueprint in how to beat Froch, so why fight that guy. Bute needs to step up a level and face the Dirrell brothers.

At the minimum, take a fight against Hopkins, although I wouldn’t count that fight as being enough to get a fight against Ward because of how bad Hopkins looked in his last fight against Chad Dawson. If Bute takes that fight and wins, he should at least fight one of the Dirrell brothers to try and get a fight with Ward. I don’t think Bute can beat either of the Dirrell brothers, so we should see Bute weeded out of the Ward lottery if and when he fights one of the Dirrell brothers.