Lemieux could face Monroe Jr. or Curtis Stevens in March

By Boxing News - 01/02/2016 - Comments

Boxing: Golovkin vs LemieuxBy Dan Ambrose: Former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-3, 31 KOs) will be back in the ring two months from now in March, possibly against former world title challengers Curtis Stevens (27-5, 20 KOs) and/or Willie Monroe Jr. (19-2, 6 KOs), according to Dan Rafael. Both Stevens and Monroe were knocked out in the past by champion Gennady Golovkin.

Lemieux, 27, was stopped by Golovkin in the 8th round last October in a fight that was televised by HBO pay-per-view from Madison Square Garden in New York. Lemieux talked a good game ahead of time, but he failed to back up his talk in the ring. Indeed, Lemieux was timid in the fight and didn’t attack Golovkin the way he had said he was going to.

Golovkin dominated the fight just using his jab because Lemieux wasn’t trying to attack him the way he needed to. The fight turned out to be one of Golovkin’s easier ones imply because Lemieux wasn’t willing to press the attack.

Lemieux’s fight in March will be televised on regular HBO, as they owed him one more fight after the Golovkin PPV contest.

Stevens, 30, has been out of the ring for over a year now since his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Hassan N’Dam in October 2014. It’s kind of surprising that Stevens has stayed inactive for so long, because he’s always been an active fighter during his career. Stevens was stopped in the 8th round by Golovkin in November 2013. After that loss, Stevens came back and was able to defeat Patrick Majewski and Tureano Johnson by knockouts.

The win over Tureano was a controversial one, as the referee Gary Rosato stopped the contest in the 10th round after Stevens hurt Tureano with a shot. Tureano looked like was going to be able to make it out of the round, but the fight was halted anyway. If the referee hadn’t stopped the fight, Tureano would have won an easy 10 round decision.

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Monroe, 29, was stopped in the 6th round by Golovkin last year in May. Golovkin knocked Monroe down twice in the 2nd and once in the 6th round. Monroe surprisingly quit on his feet after getting up from the knockdown. It looked like he would have been able to continue fighting, but he chose to have the fight stopped.

It’s perhaps a smart thing that Monroe quit, because Golovkin was throwing his shots with more power than he had in rounds 3 through 5, and he would have problems handling anymore of Golovkin’s big shots. Since his loss to Golovkin, Monroe has been vocal in saying that he’s not as hard a puncher as he thought he was going into the fight. Monroe also thinks that Golovkin will lose to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez when and if they ever face each other.

Stevens is probably the more difficult fight for Lemieux because he can really punch, and he’s got a fairly good chin. Golovkin was able to stop Stevens, to be sure, but it took a lot of hard shots to get the stoppage. Monroe would be the easier fight for Lemieux because he can’t punch, and he’s coming off of a knockout loss. Lemieux might be able to make Monroe quit just like Golovkin did if he takes the fight to him and hits him with some big shots.

Lemieux is a better fighter than he showed in the Golovkin fight. I believe his performance in that bout was a product of poorly thought out game plan, and a failure to make adjustments early one when it was clear that things were not working for him.

If Lemieux wants to make sure he can get a sure thing win without any hiccups for his March comeback, then he needs to take on Monroe because that’s a safer fight than going up against Stevens. Lemieux can probably beat Stevens at his own game by slugging with him. The problem is if he doesn’t get Stevens out of there quickly, he would windup getting stopped by him. Stevens is a much bigger puncher than the guys that Lemieux had been rolling over before his recent loss to Golovkin.

HBO would probably prefer that Lemieux face Stevens rather than the safety-first Monroe Jr., but it’s going to be up to Lemieux’s promoters at Golden Boy whether he should take a risky opponent like Stevens next.



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