by Shaun McElreath

Saturday night on Showtime, the heavy handed IBF Super Middleweight World Champion Lucian Bute (29-0 , 24 via KO), will defend his title against the veteran Glen Johnson (51-15-2, via 35 KO). Initially the champion Bute wanted to fight former titleholder Mikkel Kessler of Denmark. When Kissler declined the bout, the champ and his team had their eyes on former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, who wanted the fight (at first). Pavlik ended up cancelling the bout, unhappy with the 1.35 million he was offered from Top Rank to challenge the champion.

These series of events led Lucian and his management to seek out former IBF lightheavyweight title holder Glen Johnson. Bute has yet to fight such an experienced and skilled fighter, and this fight should go a long way to either getting him a super fight with the winner of the Showtime Super Middleweight Tournament, or keeping big name fighters even further from wanting to get in the ring with him.

Bute defended his title for the eighth consecutive time in his last bout knocking out undefeated Jean-Paul Mendy in the fourth round with a nasty left straight, which gave him his sixth straight win via knockout or TKO. Mendy was never really in the fight and from the beginning was far outclassed by the champion. A southpaw with heavy hands, Bute in his prior fights loves to snap a quick stiff jab in his opponents face resulting in fights ending early as 24 of his 29 wins have come via knockout. The only knack on Bute has been his soft relatively unknown competition, and that the Romanian-Canadian champion has only fought three times outside the comfort of Canada and Romania. This fight while being against a much bigger name and skill level than past competition, is still going to be held in Quebec Canada.

The challenger and former IBF light heavyweight champ Glen Johnson is a volume puncher, and has had a storied career with 68 fights to his name. He is 11 years the elder of Bute, and is going to need every bit of his fight experience to stop the speed and power of the defending champion. Johnson’s last bout was the semi-final round of the Super Six tournament, where he went the distance in a UD loss to WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch. Johnson’s loss to Froch was competitive enough to get a shot at Lucian Bute who was certainly in need of an opponent after the fiasco with Pavlik dropping out of the fight.

Can the crafty 41 year old veteran Johnson pull out a major upset over the champion to revitalize his career? Or will the quick powerful hands of the champion add another stunning KO victory over a much bigger named opponent than any he has faced in his career?