By Allan Fox: Former middleweight contender David Lemieux (25-2, 24 KO’s) will be returning to the ring in May or June against an opponent still to be determined. Lemieux, 23, injured his right hand in his disappointing 12 round majority decision defeat against Joachim Alcine last December.

That was Lemieux’s second consecutive loss during 2011. He was also beaten by Marco Antonio Rubio by a 7th round TKO last year in April in a big upset.

Lemieux’s promoter Yvon Michel said to Cyberpress “It will depend on when Jean Pascal fights next. We wait for news from Showtime, but David should fight in May or June.”

It looks like Michel wants to package the Pascal fight, which could be against IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud, with Lemieux fighting on the undercard against a likely 2nd tier opponent. Lemieux can’t afford another loss right now if he wants to try and regain his confidence. As it is, the two defeats have knocked Lemieux out of the top 15. That’s not fatal, because Lemieux is only 23, and has a lot of time to improve on his mistakes.

However, Lemieux needs to be moved down to junior middleweight and he badly needs to work on his conditioning. In both his defeats to Alcine and Rubio, Lemieux completely faded by the midpoint of the fight. That allowed Rubio and Alcine to take control over the fight.

Lemieux lacks arm length, and that’s going to be a continual problem as long as he stays at middleweight. His power is so good that he’ll beat most 2nd tier fighters, but when he gets up against the better upper division fighters, Lemieux will need more than just power. He’ll need some boxing skills and a whole lot of stamina. I’m not sure if these problems can fixed. I would have to see how he’s training to whether he’s been working hard or just going through the motions.

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Bermane Stiverne vs. Willie Herring on Saturday night

Hard hitting heavyweight contender Bermane Stiverne (21-1, 20 KO’s) will be fighting this Saturday night in a scheduled eight round bout against 33-year-old journeyman Willie Herring (13-10-3, 4 KO’s) at the Miami Jai Alai Fronton, Miami, Florida. This is a pretty big mismatch, as Herring has lost seven out of his last nine fights.

Stiverne is hoping to get a shot against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in the near future, but he may have to wait a while because Vitali is looking to get some big fights.

Stiverne recently defeated Ray Austin by a 10th round TKO last June to win the vacant WBC Silver heavyweight title in a wBC heavyweight title eliminator.

Herring isn’t in Stivern’s league, and you have to wonder why this fight was made. Stiverne knocked out four of his last five fights, but looked vulnerable in the Austin fight.