By Scott Gilfoid: Middleweight David Lemieux (27-2, 26 KO’s) had his way with the soft opponent Alvaro Gaona (11-2, 7 KO’s) that his promoters picked out for him last Friday night in stopping him in the 1st round at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada. Lemieux, who is trying to rebuild his career after losses to Marco Antonio Rubio and Joachim Aline, knocked Gaona down twice in the round to get the stoppage victory at 2:48 of the round.

The ending came when Lemieux connected with a big left hook that knocked an already badly hurt Gaona clean out, sending him to the canvas flat on his back with both of his arms and legs stretched out in a knockout spasm. Moments before that, Lemieux had knocked Gaona on his backside with a right hand to the head while he was foolishly in the corner trying to fight.

Okay, so that was the positive side of Lemieux’s performance last night. The negative was that he came into the fight having weighed in the day before at 163 1/2 pounds for the fight. Believe me, Lemieux looked much heavier than that when he stepped inside the ring last night. I’d guess that Lemieux was in the low to mid 170s last night, and that weight didn’t make him a better fighter. If anything, he looked slower than he’s been in the past and he was even more hittable. Gaona was able to hit him with some really good shots, but he didn’t have enough power or skills to survive the early part of the fight to get the stamina-plagued Lemieux into the second half of the fight so that he could drown him like Rubio and Alcine did.

I don’t know what happened with Lemieux’s weight, but if he plans on becoming the next Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and draining down huge amounts of weight to fight smaller guys at middleweight, I think it’ll end badly for Lemieux. If anything, he’ll get beaten easier and it’ll just make it necessary for him to have to move up to super middleweight that much sooner. At super middleweight, Lemieux doesn’t have even a slight chance of doing anything at that weight. He’ll be completely lost at that weight and I don’t see it going well for him.

Okay, so Lemieux’s defense was horrible, he looked HUGE last night in terms of his way, he showed zero boxing ability and just appeared to be swinging for the fences with every shot. I don’t know what his Canadian promoters are trying to turn him into. Lemieux can beat the 3rd tier opposition like Gaona and his last opponent Jaundiel Zepeda by fighting like this, but he’s not going to beat anyone in the top 15 at middleweight with this kind of primitive fighting style. He’s not going anywhere. If Lemieux’s management are cool with him being a guy they trot out to destroy some outclassed 3rd tier opponent in front of clueless casual fans who have no idea that Lemieux is no longer finding world class opposition, then that’s alright.

I guess he might make a little money that way. But Lemieux isn’t going to learn anything or improve running out and trying to KO everyone in the 1st round instead of using these guys to learn to extend himself into the later rounds to build his stamina and learn how to box. He’s rushing through these fights instead of trying to learn something. It’s being wasted for nothing. It’s too bad because he might have been a decent bottom dweller type middleweight, but it looks like he’s going to stay 2nd tier and soon be forced to move up to 168 if he keeps getting bigger like this.