By Dan Ambrose: New Golden Boy Promotions signee middleweight contender David Lemieux (33-2, 31 KOs) is aiming big for his fights in 2015 with Golden Boy. Lemieux, #2 WBC, #4 WBO, #5 IBF, #13 WBA, reportedly wants to face Gennady Golovkin, Miguel Cotto or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez this year.
At 26, with his biggest win of his career being his recent 10th round stoppage win over trial horse Gabriel Rosado, it’s very ambitious of Lemieux to be seeking out fighters this high up instead of Lemieux continuing to aim for the low hanging targets.
I don’t know that Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya will want to throw Lemieux to the wolves so quickly before he’s gotten a chance to slowly make him into a money maker for Golden Boy by setting him up with more mismatches like the ones he’s had in his last eight fights.
To be sure, Lemieux would become a huge name overnight in the United States if he were to pick off one of the aforementioned fighters like Canelo, Cotto or Golovkin, but the odds would be stacked against him in being able to accomplish that task.
There’s also the problem with De La Hoya being such a careful match-maker. He might not want to let Lemieux fight anyone dangerous unless he clobbers De La Hoya over the head with the order to let him fight one of those guys.
You have to remember that De La Hoya was against matching Canelo against Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara. It was Canelo who insisted on taking those fights. De La Hoya likes to make lip service how he’s only interested in putting together the best fights, but you don’t see that in the case of the match-making he’s tried to do with Canelo.
De La Hoya wanted to match Canelo up against the light hitting Carlos Molina. The question is will De La Hoya protect Lemieux like a mother hen or will he let the Canadian fighter face the best in a sink or swim fashion. My guess is De La Hoya will protect Lemieux, at least from Cotto and Golovkin. De La Hoya will need to use Lemieux for Canelo, because he really doesn’t have anyone to match the red-haired Canelo with other than Cotto right now.
“At a media gathering with @lemieuxboxing and @OscarDeLaHoya. Lemieux wants GGG, Canelo or Cotto. #boxing,” Dan Rafael said on his twitter.
Golovkin would likely bludgeon Lemieux into submission in 2 or 3 rounds. Cotto would take Lemieux out in 5 or 6 rounds. With Canelo, it would be a pick em fight that could go either way. If Lemieux got to Canelo first with one of his big shots, then we’d see Lemieux getting his hand raised after knocking Canelo out.
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