By Dan Ambrose: IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux got some really bad news on Tuesday with the International Boxing Federation ordering #4 IBF Tureano Johnson (18-1, 13 KOs) and #7 IBF Eamonn O’Kane (14-1-1, 5 KOs) to begin negotiations for a fight.

According to Dan Rafael, the two fighters only have a couple of weeks to negotiate the fight otherwise it’ll go to a purse bid will take place in July. Lemieux will then be facing the winner of the Johnson vs. O’Kane fight by the end of the year. The reason this is bad news for Lemieux is because Johnson will likely destroy O’Kane, and be the guy that he winds up facing at the end of the year.

Johnson has a very, very good chin, and he’s a nonstop puncher who likes to push a very fast pace. That definitely isn’t good for Lemieux because he gasses out when his opposition pushes a fast pace.

Lemieux even gassed out in the second half of his fight against Hassan N’Dam this month on June 20th, and that was with N’Dam fighting at a slow pace. You can just imagine what it’ll be like with Tureano Johnson attacking Lemieux for 12 rounds. Johnson is like a combination of a prime James Kirkland and Mike Tyson. He never stops coming for an instant.

If Lemieix cannot knock KO Johnson, then you can expect Lemieux to be finished off by the 7th or 8th rounds, just like he was when he fought Marco Antonio Rubio. The bad thing is that a loss for Lemieux will destroy what would have been a good fight between him and WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Lemieux could be taking the fight with Golovkin now, but his promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions is insisting that he face his IBF mandatory next.

The thing is the IBF were going to let Lemieux face Golovkin next, and then let him face his IBF mandatory after that. De La Hoya obviously went for what he must feel is the safer fight by having him defend his title against his mandatory challenger. If that does turn out to be Tureano Johnson, then I see this backfiring on Lemieux and De La Hoya.

Lemieux will get knocked out by Johnson, and he’ll make less money in that fight than he would have if he’d just taken the fight against Golovkin. The way I see it if you’re going to lose pretty much no matter who you fight, then you might as well take the biggest money fight possible against Golovkin rather than get less money in getting knocked out by Johnson.

Lemieux and De La Hoya were likely counting on 41-year-old Sam Soliman beating prospect Dominic Wade last Friday night. If Soliman had won that fight, then he would have been facing O’Kane in the IBF 160lb eliminator bout. The winner of the Soliman-O’Kane fight would then have been the guy that Lemieux would be facing at the end of the year.

Of course, Lemieux would have an excellent chance of beating either of those guys because they’re no threat to him due to their lack of power. But with Soliman arguably getting robbed in the Wade fight, it now leaves O’Kane and Tureano Johnson to fight in the IBF eliminator, and that is bad news for Lemieux because he does not match-up at all against a guy with steel chin and a nonstop brawling style like Johnson. I wouldn’t be surprised if Lemieux gasses out by the 3rd or 4th round against Johnson.