By Dan Ambrose: The much hyped Canadian middleweight contender David Lemieux (25-1, 24 KO’s) was badly exposed by Mexican Marco Antonio Rubio (50-5-1, 43 KO’s) in a 7th round TKO loss for the 22-year-old Lemieux on Friday night at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada. Lemieux was hurt in the 6th from a right hand from Rubio and then dropped the 7th by a right hand to the side of the head. Lemieux got back to his feet with both legs looking rubbery, barely strong to hold him upright.
Once the action resumed, Rubio quickly drove Lemieux to his corner with a series of powerful combinations that ended with Lemieux’s corner letting the referee know that they wanted the fight stopped. Referee Marlon Wright then halted the fight at 2:36 of the round. Contrary to what some people are saying about this being a quick stoppage. This wasn’t a quick stoppage at all. As soon as the referee stopped the fight, you could see Lemieux staggering and looking shaky on his feet. He wasn’t going to be able to make it another 24 seconds before going down again. Rubio was just too strong and Lemieux was reduced to a mere punching bag at that point.
More than anything, this fight showed Lemieux’s lack of size. He’s listed at 5’10 1/2″, but looked at least two inches shorter than the 5’10” Rubio. That may not seem like much but it is when you’re talking about a 5’8″ fighter trying to compete against bigger middleweights. Lemieux was just too small tonight, and Rubio calmly blocked most of Lemieux’s shots all night long. The few that would connect in every round weren’t thrown with enough power to worry Rubio. Lemieux looked powerful against the 2nd and 3rd tier fighters he’d been facing up until the Rubio fight, but when he finally fought someone that knew how to fight and how to block punches, Lemieux was completely lost.
Although I don’t expect Lemieux’s trainer to move him down in weight, I think he’s crazy if he keeps him at middleweight. The guy is simply too short to beat the bigger middleweights. They can put whatever bogus number they want for Lemieux’s height, but he’s the one that’s going to have to face the bigger fighters at middleweight, not his inflated height. The guy just doesn’t have the size for the weight class and his power, as we saw tonight, is vastly overrated.
I thought Rubio was the harder puncher of the two, and he’s not even the hardest puncher in the division. Don’t get me wrong, Rubio is one of the hardest punchers there’s no doubt about it. However, I see Sergio Martinez, Andy Lee, James Kirkland, Gennady Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs as being harder punchers. Lemieux needs to move down in weight if he wants to be competitive. At the same time, he needs to learn how to relax more and use his jab. He was throwing nothing but power shots and looked tired after the 3rd round.
Rubio clipped Lemieux with a powerful left hook while backing up and taking shots late in the 1st. The punch bloodied Lemieux’s nose and the nosebleed continued to be a problem for the remainder of the fight. It was these occasional jarring shots from Rubio that seemed to form a pattern of the fight. Lemieux would throw a massive amount of shots, most of them either being picked off on the gloves and arms of Rubio or else they’d miss altogether. The ones that did land weren’t all that powerful compared to the bigger middleweights like Kelly Pavlik, and Rubio wasn’t bothered in the least by them.
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