By Dan Ambrose: David Lemieux will be fighting before the end of this year in October or November, possibly against middleweight contender Curtis Steven (28-5, 21 KOs). Lemieux (35-3, 32 KOs) lost his IBF middleweight title to Gennady Golovkin last October in an 8th round knockout loss. Since that fight, Lemieux has come back and beaten ring rusty Glen Tapia by a 4th round knockout last May.
It’s hard to tell if the 27-year-old Lemieux has improved since his loss to Golovkin, because his opponent was too poor to show where he’s at.
Lemieux’s next fight will likely take place in his home city of Montreal, according to RingTV. Lemieux’s promoters at Golden Boy are interested in staging his next fight there. Lemieux is currently ranked #3 WBC, #4 WBO, #7 IBF. He’s ranked high enough for him to soon get another title shot.
There’s really no point in Lemieux fighting Triple G again because their fight was so one-sided that there’s zero chance of the outcome being any different if they face each other in 2017. If anything, Golovkin would likely KO Lemieux faster the second time around, because he knows now exactly how to beat him.
The 5’7” Stevens is probably a really bad choice for Lemieux, because he has a great deal of experience during his career, and he hits extremely hard. Further, Stevens has good stamina and a good chin, so he’ll be around long enough to test Lemieux’s questionable stamina. I think Golden Boy won’t want to make this fight because it wouldn’t be like the typical mismatches that we’ve seen Lemieux involved with.
Stevens is capable of staying around long enough to eventually get to Lemieux’s chin and get to the point in the fight where the Canadian fighter’s stamina gives in. Lemieux’s stamina is a little better than it was in the past, but he still fades in the second half of his fights. It would be a major gamble if Lemieux winds up facing Stevens because that’s a fight that could go very wrong for him.
Stevens has the kind of power that can hurt Lemieux and hurt him bad. Stevens lost to Hassan N’Dam in October 2014 in getting beaten by a 12 round unanimous decision. N’Dam circled the ring and stayed out of range of Stevens’ big power shots. Lemieux wouldn’t be able to do that because he’s a not a mobile fighter.
It appears that Golden Boy is trying to rebuild Lemieux for a future fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. That would be a money maker if Golden Boy lets it marinate like they’re doing with the Canelo vs. Gennady Golovkin fight. However, Golden Boy needs to be careful with the type of opposition they put Lemieux in with, because if they stick him in with the wrong guy like Stevens, we could see him get beaten again.
Ring rusty Tapia was the perfect guy for Lemieux to fight, because he hadn’t fought in an entire year since getting stopped in the 4th round in May 2015. He was the perfect opponent for Lemieux. A fight between Lemieux and James De La Rosa failed to happen this year after Lemieux came in over the limit for the fight.