By Scott Gilfoid: Rather than wasting time fighting IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch and possibly ending up on the short end of the stick when it comes to negotiations, former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) may wind up facing the winner of next month’s fight between Sakio Bika and Sjekloca for the soon to be vacant WBC super middleweight title, according to rds.ca.
The World Boxing Council is rumored to be on the verge of taking the current WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward and giving him the old “Emeritus” status, so his title will be available for other fighters to fight over. Ward recently injured his right shoulder in sparring for his cancelled fight with Kelly Pavlik, and he required surgery to repair the problem.
Ward likely won’t be back in the ring until summer at the earliest. With the Emeritus status, Ward can then move in and fight the eventual WBC champion to try and get his title back. Normally, I would think this is a bad deal by having the WBC push Ward off his thrown so that other guys can fight over his title, but it’ll work out great if Bute takes on the Bika vs. Sjekloca winner so that we could possibly have Bute picking up Ward’s strap.
This, of course, would lead to an eventual Bute vs. Ward fight somewhere down the line in 2013 unless Bute got cold feet and decided he didn’t want any part of the talented Ward. I mean, I have no doubts that Bute will beat the winner of the Sjekloca-Bika fight because Bute already easily beat Bika in 2007, and I see Bika as a much better fighter than Sjekloca.
My only doubts here are whether Bute would be willing to fight Ward straightaway. I think Bute will take a rematch with Froch over a dangerous fight with Ward, I really do. I think the Froch rematch might make Bute more money, and obviously Bute would have a much better chance of beating Froch than he ever would of beating Ward.
There’s no way on earth that Bute would ever beat a talent like Ward, but he could in theory beat Froch if he fights smart, avoids hanging on the ropes, and uses his old hit and run style of fighting.
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