By Allen Fox: Formerly unbeaten middleweight contender David Lemieux (25-1, 24 KO’s) will be taking on 35-year-old former WBA junior middleweight champion Joachim Alcine (32-2-1, 19 KO’s) on December 10th at the Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The 22-year-old Lemieux is getting Alcine at just the fight time, as Alcine hasn’t won a fight in over two years and was stopped in the 1st round by Alfredo Angulo last year in July. In his last fight, Alince struggled to an eight round draw with Jose Medina (14-9) last August.

Lemieux hasn’t fought since he was exposed by Marco Antonio Rubio in a 7th round TKO loss last July. Lemieux punched himself out early in that fight and was blasted out after a knockdown in the 7th. It was thought that Lemieux would work on his flaws and quickly get back in the ring. However, he’s got a new trainer and has been slow in getting to his feet for some reason. The Alcine fight isn’t a step in the right direction, as this appears to be another hand-fed opponent that Lemieux will likely knock out early but not learn anything from. Lemieux needs opposition that can force him to extend himself beyond the 6th round and he badly needs to work his stamina.

Lemieux is fighting at middleweight, but his listed height of 5’10 1/2″ is very questionable. Against the 5’10” Rubio in his last fight, Lemieux appeared to be at least two inches shorter than the Mexican. At 5’8″, with very short arms that some boxing fans refer to as ‘T-Rex’ arms, Lemieux really needs to lose some weight and move down to welterweight. Personally, I think Lemieux is too short even for junior middleweight and the lack of arm length is perhaps the biggest problem for Lemieux. Without the long arms needed to fight that taller fighters, Lemieux could find himself getting hit a lot by the taller guys. We already saw that Lemieux’s chin isn’t the best in the world when the taller, longer-armed Rubio battered Lemieux in the 6th and 7th rounds.

Lemieux’s management are only forestalling the inevitable by continuing to feed him soft touches like Alcine and not having him move down in weight. I don’t see Lemieux ever winning a title at middleweight or junior middleweight, not even a paper title.

Lemieux’s lack of size and arm reach will limit what he can accomplish at either of these weights. What he needs to do is burn off some baby fat and move down to welterweight and try to get some of the big named fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr, Amir Khan or Manny Pacquiao to take an interest in fighting him. With his limited 64″ reach, Lemieux might even have problems at that weight because there are taller guys like the 6’0″ Mike Jones who would be a monster next to the 5’8″-ish Lemieux.