Lemieux to fight N’Dam for vacant IBF 160lb title

By Boxing News - 02/16/2015 - Comments

lemieux787887By Dan Ambrose: #5 IBF David Lemieux (33-2, 31 KOs) has reportedly agreed to fight #1 IBF Hassan N’Dam (33-1, 18 KOs) for the vacant IBF middleweight title, according to lapresse.ca.

Lemieux’s decision to face N’Dam for the IBF title comes after both Billy Joe Saunders and Felix Sturm both turned the fight down for various reasons. Sturm decided he didn’t want to fight N’Dam due to a better paying bout against WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham of Germany being out there for him on the horizon.

Saunders made the decision that he’d rather face the winner of the Peter Quillin vs. Andy Lee fight for the WBO middleweight title. For both Saunders and Sturm, they made a smart decision in bypassing the tricky and fast-handed N’Dam because the chances are that they both would have lost the fight.

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There still isn’t a date yet for the Lemieux vs. N’Dam fight, but you’d have to assume that it’ll take place within 3 to 4 months at the most. The International Boxing Federation obviously wants someone to fight for that title, because with no fights it means no sanctioning fees.

Lemieux is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions now, although he has promotional issues with his previous promoter that still needs to be ironed out. Earlier on Monday, Eye of the Tiger Management (EOTTM) reportedly announced the fight.
N’Dam recently defeated Curtis Stevens in a surprising victory for N’Dam.

The previous IBF title holder Jermain Taylor was supposed to have defended his IBF title against Sergio Mora earlier this month, but due to pressuring legal problems, Taylor wasn’t able to take the fight.

As for Lemieux, he recently destroyed Gabriel Rosado in stopping him in the 10th round last December on the 6th in Brooklyn, New York at the Barclays Center.
This is perhaps Lemieux’s best chance of winning an easy world title, because if he were to have said no to this fight, he’d be forced having to deal with Gennady Golovkin or the winner of the Andy Lee vs. Peter Quillin match.

Lemieux would likely struggle badly against Quillin and Golovkin. Miguel Cotto, the WBC middleweight champion, is expected to vacate his title this year rather than defend it against his mandatory challenger Golovkin. That would leave Golovkin holding both the WBA and WBC titles.

There’s also WBA regular Daniel Jacobs, but he would be a tough match-up for Lemieux as well due to his punching power. Out of all those fighters, N’Dam is the most vulnerable and the most beatable guy due to his chin problem. N’Dam previously held the WBO middleweight title, but he was beaten easily by Quillin in 2012.

Quillin knocked N’Dam down six times in the fight in en route to winning a 12 round decision. If Quillin was able to put N’Dam down that many times, then it’s quite possible that Lemieux will be able to do the same thing to him.

Lemieux’s problem will be trying to catch up to N’Dam, because he’s very likely going to be on the move constantly and trying to not to get hit as much as possible.



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