By William Mackay: Sports Illustrated writer Chris Mannix says that WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward was upset when IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute decided to fight Carl Froch on May 26th. Mannix said Ward and Bute were negotiating a two-fight deal before Bute signed on to face Froch.”

Bute’s promoter Jean Bedard from InterBox denied that they had ever been in negotiations with Ward, saying to the QMI Agency “It’s like being revived after Easter…In fact, his nickname ‘Son of God.’ When I first read his comments, I thought it was a joke. I never negotiated with Andre Ward. After I have not heard of him since December 18th, since his last match against Carl Froch. Now suddenly he comes to life. After his victory against Froch, Andre said that Lucian would be next…Froch wanted to fight. Anyway, it’s good news.”

So who’s the truth? I don’t know and I can’t care. Bute may not get past Froch, so there may not even be a point to quibble over all of this. Bute still has to beat Froch, and he has to do it in a convincing manner to earn a fight against Ward. The two of them have a two-fight deal and we may not see Bute freed from those fights until 2013.

By then, Bute may be depleted from having taken a lot of punishment. He’ll likely come limping into the Ward fight, still licking his battle wounds from the Froch encounter. It’ll be easy pickings for Ward by then. Bute would have his hands full right now if he were to be put in with Ward, because Bute can’t fight on the inside and he’s slower than Ward with a fragile chin. Although Ward isn’t a knockout puncher, I think he’d have little problems getting Bute out of there.

If Bute’s promoter is smart, he’ll return Bute back to Canada after the Froch fight and go back to having him fight obscure fighters that the International Boxing Federation has given an inflated ranking to. Bute can face older guys like Jean Paul Mendy with a #1 ranking based on 2nd tier wins and Bute will clean up. He’s done remarkably well for himself facing guys like Mendy, Edison Miranda and Brian Magee all these years. Why would he want to go and mess things up by facing Ward and losing his IBF title. Bute doesn’t match up well with Ward and he’ll likely lose much worse than Carl Froch did in getting beaten by Ward.