By Scott Gilfoid: If IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-0, 24 KO’s) wants to fight former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) badly enough then he may have to travel to Froch’s home town of Nottingham, England and fight him on May 5th as part of their two-fight deal.

Froch and his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport want to get the Canadian based Bute to fight the first fight in Nottingham. No doubt they don’t like their chances of fighting the first bout in Canada and end up getting jobbed. Froch was made the mandatory challenger for Bute’s title by the IBF this week. They have 60 days to negotiate the fight.

Hearn told the dailymail.co.uk “I believe we can bring Lucian here in May and we will be happy to give him the rematch in Canada once Carl has taken the IBF title from him.”

Wow! That would be incredible if Froch and Hearn were able to get Bute to come to Nottingham to take this fight, because that’s probably the only way the fight gets made. Froch isn’t about to travel to Canada to fight Bute on the back of Froch’s loss to WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward last December.

Froch is in a weak position and can’t afford to lose a questionable decision because it would really hurt his career. I don’t think Froch can beat Bute in Canada and I think he would be crazy if he agreed to fight him. For that reason, Froch is looking at fight someone else on May 5th in Nottingham. He’s looking at Librado Andrade as the fighter that fills that date.

Bute really needs the Froch fight if he wants to get a fight against WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Ward. However, SHOWTIME television wants no part of the Froch-Bute fight, preferring that Bute fight an American like Andre Dirrell instead. But it looks like Bute and his promoter are willing to fight Froch anyway without Showtime televising it.

Bute would have to be supremely confident in his skills for him to agree to a risky fight against Froch in Nottingham. The last time Froch fought in Nottingham, he beat Dirrell by an incredibly controversial 12 round split decision in 2009. Bute could easily wind up just like Dirrell did by dominating Froch but not getting the decision.

If I was Bute, I wouldn’t agree to fight Froch in Nottingham in a million years. No way. Too many chances of losing a home town decision like Dirrell did.