By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions has added former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (37-3, 33 KOs) vs. Marcos Reyes (35-4, 26 KOs) to the May 6th Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fight card on HBO pay-per-view from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Lemieux-Reyes fight will be the co-feature bout on the Canelo-Chavez Jr. card.
Adding Lemieux to the co-feature in a showcase/mismatch fight can be interpreted as a huge hint that Golden Boy Promotions intends on matching the Canadian fighter against Canelo in September instead of Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. It appears that’s what we’re going to be seeing. Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya has already said that for the Canelo-Golovkin fight to take place in September, Triple G would need to accept his “fair” offer, which is said to be a lower offer than the original one.
Putting Lemieux in a highly visible spot on the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. pay-per-view card on May 6 would seem to be De La Hoya all but saying that Lemieux will be the September opponent for Canelo. Having Lemieux fight a guy with no hope of winning or even looking good in Marcos Reyes, suggests that Golden Boy wants to make Lemieux look out of this world good in order to increase interest in a Canelo-Lemieux fight in September. I hope I’m wrong about my prediction of Lemieux being Canelo’s next opponent, but I don’t think I am. I see this move by De La Hoya as a sure fire sign that Lemieux will be Canelo’s next opponent in September on the Mexican Independence Day Holiday.
It’s nice that Golden Boy has added the 28-year-old Lemieux to the card, because it gives the hardcore boxing fans a recognizable face for the card. However, the Lemieux-Reyes fight is a really bad mismatch and not PPV worthy in my mind. Reyes, 29, was recently knocked out in 7 rounds by 36-year-old journeyman Elvin Ayala last November. Reyes also was beaten by Chavez Jr. in 2015 and Abraham Han in 2014. Adding Lemieux to the May 6 card is good, but it defeats the purpose to him fight in the co-feature against Reyes. It’s a terrible mismatch for a card that boxing fans will need to pay to see on HBO PPV.
Reyes has lost 3 out of his last 6 fights. Reyes would be a good opponent for an off television fight against one of Golden Boy’s prospects at middleweight, but not for a top contender like Lemieux, who is ranked #3 WBC, #4 WBO and #6 IBF in the middleweight division. For a fight card that the fans are paying to see, they deserve to have a good co-feature bout, not a mismatch between Lemieux and Reyes.
Lemieux recently destroyed Curtis Stevens in a brutal 3rd knockout on March 11 at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York. The fight was televised by HBO Boxing. It was Lemieux’s third consecutive win since he was stopped in 8 rounds by Gennady Golovkin on October 17, 2015. Lemieux lost his IBF middleweight title in that fight. He looked bad in losing to GGG, as he couldn’t do more than throw wild shots that missed over and over again.
A fight between Lemieux and Canelo will position the winner to move in and snatch the WBC middleweight title once Golovkin vacates it to move up in weight to the super middleweight division at the end of 2017. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez said this week that Triple G will be moving up to 168 after June if they fail to get a fight against Canelo for September. Either way, Golovkin will be moving up to super middleweight before the end of the year. With Golovkin moving up to super middleweight, he’ll leave behind his IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC and possibly the WBO title if he can win it against the current WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in June.
Canelo previously held the WBC title from 2015-2016. Canelo vacated the title after the World Boxing Council ordered him to fight #1 mandatory Golovkin last year. Canelo won’t have to worry about the WBC ordering him to fight Golovkin once the Kazakhstan fighter moves out of the division. However, #1 WBC Jorge Heiland and #2 WBC Jermall Charlo will be fighting in a WBC middleweight title eliminator soon. If Lemieux and Caneo wants to fight for the WBC 160 lb. title after Golovkin leaves the division, they’ll need to go through the Charlo-Heiland winner, which figures to be Charlo. I doubt that Canelo or Lemieux will ever fight Charlo, because he’s too dangerous and there would be a high chance of both of them losing the fight.
“I’m thankful to have the opportunity of being part of this event during the Cinco de Mayo celebrations,” Lemieux said. “I think I was able to send a clear message on March 11 with my performance against Stevens and I intend to do the same on May 6. I want to make sure that everyone understands that David Lemieux is making his way towards the top and that he intends to stay there.”
An early knockout win for Lemieux against Reyes on May 6 will help setup a fight between him and Canelo for September. It would still be a dangerous fight for Canelo, but he’s probably good enough to beat Lemeiux as long as he doesn’t do something really stupid like backing up and fighting off the ropes like he did in his last fight against Liam Smith. Lemieux does well when his opponents back up against the ropes. We saw what happened to Curtis Stevens when he backed up against the ropes earlier this month in their fight on March 11. Lemieux knocked Stevens unconscious with a left hook. Canelo needs rest breaks in his fights to catch his breath, and he always goes to the ropes. Lemieux could knock Canelo out if he tries to fight off the ropes against him.
Lemieux has lost 3 fights in his career to Golovkin, Joachim Alcine and Marco Antonio Rubio. They say that Lemieux has improved since his losses to Rubio and Alcine, but I didn’t see much improvement in his game in his loss to Golovkin in 2015. It’s the same thing with Lemieux. He charges his opponents like a bull and swings for the fences to try and knock them out. Sometimes Lemeiux gets a knockout, and other times he doesn’t. If he doesn’t get a knockout, then he gets knocked out himself. Lemieux has no real finesse game about him. He always slugs. Canelo should be able to out-box Lemieux without any problems as long as he fights smart and doesn’t stand still for too long. Canelo doesn’t have the reach to jab Lemieux from the outside like Golovkin did. Canelo also doesn’t have the jab that Golovkin possesses.
Lemieux is a good fighter, but he’s still very limited. You can undercard why Golden Boy would want to put him in with Canelo rather than risking their redheaded star against Golovkin or Jermall Charlo. But it’s probably not a good idea for Canelo to go after the WBC title once Golovkin moves out of the division because he would have to deal with Jermall Charlo if he holds the WBC title. I think that would be a match-up for Canelo.
Also added to the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight card is unbeaten #2 WBC featherweight contender Joseph “JoJo” Diaz Jr. (23-0, 13 KOs) fighting #10 WBC Manuel Avila (22-0, 8 KOs) in a 10 round bout. Diaz Jr. is being positioned by Golden Boy Promotions to go after WBC champion Gary Russell Jr. rather than WBO champion Oscar Valdez, who may be the best fighter in the division now that Vasyl Lomachenko has moved up in weight to super featherweight.