By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn says he plans on matching his fighter IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch up against former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute next March regardless of what the outcome of Froch’s fight against Yusaf Mack tonight. Even if Froch loses the fight, Hearn is still going to try and make the fight with Bute, because Hearn sees 2013 as “the year of the rematches” for Froch, according to Sky Sports.

Hearn said to Sky Ringside “Contractually we’re obligated to the Bute rematch, win or lose [against Mack]. 2013 is about the year of the rematches. Bute, [Mikkel] Kessler, then [Andre] Ward. Those are the three targets in 2013, and we believe we can make those fights happen. We’re planning on fighting Bute at the end of March. If they don’t take that then the fight will likely never happen.”

Oh brother. It sounds like Hearn is trying to put the fear of loss in the mind of Bute. I guess Hearn doesn’t realize that Froch gave an interview recently where he’s talking about fighting into his 40s. Now why wouldn’t Froch fight Bute again at some point during the next five years? Answer me that? Of course he will, and there’s nothing golden about March.

If Bute isn’t ready to take the rematch with Froch in March then Hearn is just going to have to wait until he is ready. It’s not as if Hearn and Froch have a lot of appealing options. Kessler has other options such as Arthur Abraham, the WBO super middleweight champion. Kessler always wants to fight Ward and he’s talking about wanting that fight next year. The way I see it Froch isn’t going to get Kessler, and he’s likely going to have to wait a while for the Bute rematch. That leaves on Ward and Froch’s mandatory challenger Adonis Stevenson.

Ward could be fighting Kelly Pavlik in January, so Froch’s best and only bet could be to defend his International Boxing Federation 168 pound title against the Canadian Stevenson. Will Froch do that? I think we could see Froch vacate the strap rather than fight Stevenson.

I don’t know who Froch would fight while he’s waiting for Bute, Kessler and Ward to free themselves up? But I do think it’ll look really bad if Froch vacates his IBF strap instead of fighting Stevenson and then turning around and fighting another less than appealing opponent picked out by his promoter. We’re already seeing that happen tonight with Froch fighting Mack instead of actual super middleweight contenders that boxing fans wanted to see Froch fight, such as unbeaten contender Thomas Oosthuizen and Edwin Rodriguez.

I really hope Froch doesn’t vacate his IBF strap rather than fighting Stevenson because it’s going to look so, so bad if he does that and turns and fights another Mack-type fighter. It’s not that Mack isn’t talented, but he’s not unbeaten like Oosthuizen and Rodriguez, and he doesn’t have the cache that Adonis Stevenson has going for him right now. Stevenson was trained by Emanuel Steward and he’s got a lot of tools to beat you in his toolkit. The speed, power, jab and southpaw stance would likely give Froch fits.