Rubio KOs Lemieux

By Boxing News - 04/08/2011 - Comments

Image: Rubio KOs LemieuxBy Jim Dower: #2 ranked WBC middleweight contender David Lemieux (25-1, 24 KO’s) looked like little more than a four-round fighter on Friday night facing a much more seasoned professional fighter in 30-year-old Marco Antonio Rubio (50-5-1, 43 KO’s), who took Lemieux to school en route to stopping him in the 7th round with a flurry of hard power shots to the head as Lemieux cringed in his corner at the Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This was supposed to be Lemieux’s moment in the sun, a fight that was shown on ESPN2 all across the United States and Canada.

Instead, it was an embarrassing defeat for Lemieux, as he looked out of his class in getting knocked down once in the 6th and then battered in the 7th until his corner asked for the fight to be halted. The official stoppage of the fight occurred at 2:36 of the 7th. Lemieux was taking heavy bombardment from Rubio and not looking good. It was a fight where Lemieux did most of the punching for the first 5 1/2 rounds. However, Rubio showed superb defense in blocking most of everything that Lemieux threw in the fight. Some shots leaked through Rubio’s gloves every now and then but the punches didn’t phase Rubio in the least.

In contrast between how Rubio was affected by Kelly Pavlik’s power shots in his 9th round stoppage loss to Pavlik in February 2009, it was as if Rubio was getting hit with mild shots from Lemieux. The punches didn’t look all that powerful except for a few good left hooks. Lemieux had his nose bloodied in the 1st when he was hit by a left hand rocket from Rubio. Lemieux continued to press the action in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th rounds, but he wasn’t landing with regularity because of how well Rubio was blocking the shots coming at him.

Rubio was very calm and relaxed while fighting, while Lemieux was tensing up and looking to put everything he had in his shots. The thing is even with Rubio throwing his punches in a relaxed way without putting everything he had in his punches, he still looked more powerful than Lemieux. It looked like Lemieux’s power was grossly overrated. In the 6th, Rubio hurt Lemieux with a big right hand late in the round that landed on the side of Lemieux’s head, causing him to back up to the ropes and cover up.

Rubio then went from fighting on the defensive to going after Lemieux for the first time in any real concerted way. Lemieux looked stressed and took a lot of shots until the round ended. At the start of the 7th, Lemieux looked good fighting behind his jab. However, as soon as Rubio landed a hard right hand, Lemieux immediately retreated a long the ropes and covered up. He retreated to his corner for a last stand while Rubio slung arrow-like shots at him from all angles until Lemieux’s corner motioned to referee Marlon Wright to have the fight stopped. After the fight, Rubio spent a great deal of time trying to console a depressed looking Lemieux about his loss, but Lemieux wouldn’t even look at Rubio while he tried to talk with him.

In other action on the card:

Marco Antonio Rubio TKO 7 David Lemieux
Adonis Stevenson KO 3 Derek Edwards
Arash Usmanee UD 8 Aldo Valtierra



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