When reports began to surface early Tuesday that former light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson had agreed to terms for a November 5th showdown with IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, FightHype.com reached out to Johnson to confirm the story. "The deal is done. All of the documents and parts are agreed upon and right now, we're just waiting to sign the contract," said Johnson. As this story goes to print, the paperwork is still being put together and will soon be sent to Johnson and his promoter, Leon Margules, to finalize. "We all know anything is changeable in boxing, but all the components are finished. It's legit," an excited Johnson stated.
Late last week, Johnson and Margules publicly stated that the initial offer from Bute's promoter, Interbox, was insulting. Johnson said he was willing to take less than half of the $1.35 million Kelly Pavlik was offered for the fight, but he wouldn't fight for the amount they were initially offering. According to Johnson, the details of the contract are confidential and cannot be disclosed as part of the deal. The "Road Warrior" is ready for the fight nonetheless. "I've already been training for the fight. I didn't want to be behind the eight ball if the fight got made. Now we're just waiting for the paperwork to get here for us to sign," continued Johnson.
While Bute would most likely sell-out any arena in Montreal no matter who he fights, Showtime was pushing for Johnson to be his next opponent in hopes of building a match-up between Bute and the winner of the Super Six Super Middleweight Tournament championship being held on October 29th between Andre Ward and Carl Froch. Johnson has aspirations of derailing everyone's plan. "This is the best fight Showtime will be able to bring. We're gonna kick ass. We're going into Montreal to derail that train and bring that title home to the 305," said the 42-year-old Jamaican, who now resides in Miami. "This is a huge opportunity and I'm winning this fight."
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