Bute vs Froch Update: Froch Confident Fight Can Be Made, But Not Official Yet

Carl Froch tells livefight.com that he is confident that the rumored May date with Lucian Bute in England will come through, but nothing is yet official. Interbox promoter Jean Bedard seemed to hint yesterday that the fight was a done deal on Twitter, and the talk is a date of May 12 in Nottingham. Froch says that is one of two potential dates in May.

"I want the fight 110% and so does my promoter Eddie Hearn. Also Lucian Bute has stated he want's the fight and is prepared to come to England to fight me. Eddie is working hard to make it happen. They are all in talks and until Eddie rings I will just keep hitting the running track and beating the bags.

"It looks very unlikely it will be May 5th as it's only about eight weeks away or so and we're both in camp now. Well I know I am. So therefore it's looking like the date will either be the 12th or the 26th as far as the availability of the venue goes."

Froch (28-2, 20 KO) is looking to rebound from his December loss to Andre Ward, and this fight with Bute (30-0, 24 KO) just keeps coming up, with nothing very concrete for either of them otherwise being mentioned. The IBF, which sanctions Bute's title belt, has done their part to force the bout, naming Froch mandatory challenger.

No matter when it happens, it appears that Showtime won't be televising in the States, which leaves in the air what will happen for U.S. TV for the bout. Bute's team and Showtime are not exactly seeing eye-to-eye right now, with Showtime having one fight left on Bute's contract and rejecting the Froch fight while offering Andre Dirrell. Bute was thought to be back on April 14, but there was no movement on a possible opponent for that date, and it seemed unlikely that Showtime was going to pick it up anyway without one of their suggested opponents, even though they're reportedly contractually obligated to air a tape-delayed showing of Mikkel Kessler's fight in Denmark against Robert Stieglitz on that date, which they surely would have lived to pair with a live Bute bout.

It's just a weird situation. There's something goofy going on with all of that, and I've got my theories the same as anyone else does, but it's still too early to make any concrete calls about any of that stuff, I think.

One report says that Bute vs Froch would wind up with Epix in the U.S., which I guess could potentially be "allowed" by Showtime, sort of like when HBO had Bute under contract and allowed ESPN3.com to air his fight with Jesse Brinkley, since they weren't interested and it's not like ESPN3.com was their competitor, the same as Epix, for all they may wish to be, is not a competitor to Showtime at this point. But I've got no clue. Sky Sports will have it in the UK, since they have a deal with Froch, if the fight does go through. It seems as though it will, but these things change.