By Dan Ambrose: Last time we saw David Lemieux (34-3, 31 Kos), he was getting bulldozed by IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin through eight rounds last October. Lemieux was little more than a punching bag for Golovin inside the ring for eight rounds.
It wasn’t competitive, as Lemieux didn’t appear to even try to put up much of a fight. Lemieux lost his IBF middleweight title in defeat against Golovkin. This Saturday night, Lemieux will start the rebuilding phase of his career to try and get back to where he was before.
Lemieux’s promoters at Golden Boy has hit the reset button on his career, and they hope to get him back to the top. They’ve found a non-threat for him to fight in James De La Rosa (21-3, 13 KOs), who has problems taking hard shots and who will likely cave in with five rounds once Lemieux starts nailing him with shots.
The Lemieux vs. De La Rosa fight will be televised on Fox Deports, and streamed live on RingTVlive.come. The start time for the Lemieux-De La Rosa fight is at 10 pm ET/7 pm PT.
Golden Boy will likely look to have Lemieux win three or four fights against lesser fighters before they set him up with a fight against their flagship fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
By that time in Canelo’s career, he likely will no longer be the WBC middleweight champion.
It’ll be a nice non-title fight between Canelo and Lemieux, and the winner will be able to move forward for bigger and better things. The loser will need to go through another rebuild on their careers. With the huge built in fan base Canelo has in the United States, it’s a lot easier for him to rebuild his career than it is for Lemieux.
“David Lemieux is a power house fighter with star quality, and U.S. audiences will get to see him in the ring again for the first time in 2016 on Fox Deportes March 12,” said De La Hoya. “His skill and speed will surely be a tough match for ‘King’ James De La Rosa, making for an entertaining fight for the fans.”
Lemieux is so much better than De La Rosa. This isn’t even going to be competitive. De La Rosa was knocked out in the 5th round in his last fight by Hugo Centeno Jr. in December 2014. That was 15 months ago. It’s unclear why De La Rosa hasn’t fought since then. But with the way he was knocked out by Centeno Jr., it’s not surprising that De La Rosa hasn’t fought since then. He was face down on the canvas in the 5th round of that fight after taking a hard left to the head. Centeno even dropped De La Rosa with a jab earlier in the fight in the 1st round.
Lemieux is probably as good as he’s ever going to get. Golden Boy and Eye of the Tiger Promotions can certainly rebuild his career as far as making the boxing fans believe in him again, but I don’t think Lemieux is going to improve as a fighter enough to beat the cream of the middleweight division. If Golden Boy puts Lemieux in with Golovkin again, he’s going to get blasted out. I see the same thing happening if they put Lemieux in with Daniel Jacobs, Canelo, and Tureano Johnson. Lemieux can probably beat all the other middleweights in the division with the exception of those few.
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