By Scott Gilfoid: It’s not really even a question of whether IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-0, 24 KO’s) will beat Carl Froch (28-2, 20 KO’s) on May 26th at the Capital FM Arena, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, UK, but rather how badly the now 32-year-old Bute will beat him.

If Bute wants to get his much wanted fight against WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward this year, then he’s going to have to really beat Froch worse than Ward. It’s going to be tough enough to beat him as bad as Ward did, though, because Ward really dominated Froch through 12 rounds in a complete schooling last December. Ward reddened Froch’s nose and left no question who the dominant fighter was in the bout.

Froch tried to win the fight on will power alone and quickly discovered that he was short on the talent needed to go along with his will power. Bute is still pretty much a completely unproven fighter after many years after facing mediocre opposition and seeming content with facing these guys. You didn’t see Bute breaking out from the fodder that was spoon-fed to him all those years until now when he’s spotted the slow-punching Froch at a vulnerable point in his career and is eager to face him. It’s too bad Bute didn’t show the same eagerness to fight one of the speedy Dirrell brothers because those guys are winning and not coming off of a defeat like Froch.

But as far as Bute getting a fight against Andre Ward, Bute is going to have to really give Froch a real pounding to stir up enough interest for Ward to bother taking the fight with him. If it’s a close decision or a loss, then Bute can forget about a fight against Ward. He’ll have to go back to the drawing board and looking to get some big wins under his belt in order to try and get that fight. It starts with taking on good opposition, preferably the kind that’s not coming off a one-sided losses like Froch.