The unbeaten Romanian fighter Lucian Bute (29-0) is hoping to dispel this Saturday the notion his reign as IBF champion has been built on a string of mediocre opponents, when he faces veteran Glen (Road Warrior) Johnson (51-15-2) for the IBF World super-middleweight title at the Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec, according to tsn.ca.
Johnson, despite his 42 years, is being touted as the most dangerous opponent yet for the 31-year-old Bute, who will make the eighth defence of the title he won from Alejandro Berrio in 2007.
“You could say that, yes, but we’ll see,” Bute said this week at a news conference with Johnson. “If it’s a short fight, people will say it was an easy fight. If it’s a long fight, people will say it’s my best fight. But looking at his experience and what he’s accomplished, it should be the toughest one.”
The bout pits the relentless five-foot-nine Johnson’s powerful right hand against the slick style and nasty left uppercut of the six-foot-two Bute.
Johnson has been in the ring with most of the top light heavyweights and super-middleweights in the last decade, and was a middleweight when he lost a title fight to Bernard Hopkins in 1997.
More recently, Johnson competed in the Super-Six tournament between the world’s top super-middleweights, where he beat Allan Green and then lost in June to British brawler Carl Froch, who will face American Andre Ward in the final Dec. 17 in Atlantic City. The winner will almost certainly face Bute in 2012.
