Bute vs Froch: Showtime Reportedly Doesn't Want April Date, Hearn Still Pressing For Fight

There are some reports that Showtime has turned down a fight between Lucian Bute and Carl Froch, but that may be blowing things out of proportion just a bit. The fight may not happen next for either man, but Hearn does intend to make the fight happen this year.

Here's what Hearn said, taken from this video:

"If it was down to the promoters and the fighters, I think it would be 95-5 [likelihood of the fight happening in April]. But because of the interest from Showtime, and because of the probably keenness to take an American fighter, I would think it's more like 60-40 positive, maybe a little more than that. But until it's done it's never done. ... If we don't do the Bute fight, we'll do a big fight in the UK in April ourselves, and then we've got that out of the way, and then we'd be happy to come to Canada on a one-fight deal and fight Lucian Bute in the summer. So we will get to Canada, and we will fight Lucian Bute eventually."

So basically, the idea is that this probably isn't going to happen in April, but Hearn does intend to pair Froch with Bute, perhaps in a more simple one-off fight in Quebec instead of the more complicated two-fight, home-and-home deal they were working on.

Showtime definitely wants to make the Andre Ward vs Lucian Bute fight for April, but they may not be able to force that. They really can't make those two fight if they don't want to, and honestly that's as much to do with Ward not seeming to be all that interested right now as anything.

If they do want "an American" in April (which they may or may not, but Hearn has said that's what he's been told), and Ward doesn't take the fight, there's, uh, Andre Dirrell. He's "back." Andre's brother Anthony would perhaps be an option but he's got a WBC mandatory in his pocket and will probably try to fight Ward sometime this year. The division is very weak for American fighters. Kelly Pavlik's around, but he's busy just trying to get his house in order, and has just started working with new trainer Robert Garcia.

So who knows? If I had my druthers they'd just do this fight so long as Ward is definitely not going to fight Bute next, but I rarely do. Have my druthers, that is.