David Lemieux stops Glen Tapia in 4th

By Boxing News - 05/07/2016 - Comments

1-LemieuxTapia_Hoganphotos

By Jim Dower: Former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (35-3, 32 KOs) got back on the winning track in stopping a game but limited junior middleweight Glen Tapia (23-3, 15 KOs) in the 4th round tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Lemieux, 27, knocked Tapia down with a left-right combination in the 4th. After Tapia got back to his feet, his corner threw in the towel and referee Russell Mora was forced to stop the contest. Tapia, 26, wasn’t happy about the stoppage because he felt he could continue fighting. He didn’t look that hurt. However, moments before the knockdown, Tapia had been hit by a flurry of big power shots from Lemieux. Tapia was hit with six consecutive left hooks to the head followed by the left-right that put him down. If the action were allowed to continue, it’s very likely that Lemieux would have finished Tapia off quickly.

In rounds one through three, Lemieux was walking Tapia down and hitting him with tremendous left hooks to the head and body. Tapia took the blows pretty well, but his nose and face were turning red by the start of the 4th round. He was eating too much leather from Lemieux and not focusing on his defense.

Tapia used his jab well and was able to land some nice shots, particularly in the 3rd round. Tapia showed some promise on offense. Where he fell apart was on the defensive side of his game. Lemieux was able to hit Tapia with left hooks and right hands almost at will. The only time Tapia was able to avoid those shots was when he was jabbing and moving. Never the less, Tapia chose to stand in front of Lemieux through most of the fight to try and beat him at his own game by slugging. That’s something that not even Gennady Golovkin tried to do with Lemieux. Golovkin was smart to primarily use his jab to soften him up until opening up with body shots in the 8th round to get the stoppage. It’s unclear what the game plan was for Tapia, but he should have focused on using his jab for seven or eight rounds before electing to use his power shots.

“This victory means the world to me,” said David Lemieux. “It proves all the doubters that Lemieux is back. When I first got offered this fight, I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy. We made sure to have the best training camp possible and within the first round I knew I was dominating. I knew after the first round that I would knock him out. I’m ready to be among the best in the middleweight division and become a world champion again.”

“I’ll be back,” said Glen “Jersey Boy” Tapia. “This wasn’t my day at all. He got me from the first round. I kept thinking that id get started but I never did. I’m ready to come back. I took a big chance and it didn’t go my way but I’m not done yet.

“He was getting hit too much. He wasn’t doing what we planned to do and when I saw him go down, I knew what I had to do to protect my fighter. He was taking too many punches.”

Golden Boy Promotions are looking to rebuild the career of Lemieux so that they can match him up against their flagship fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. That’s a fight that Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya wants to put together in the future. De La Hoya said he won’t put them in with each other soon because he wants Lemieux to get more wins under his belt. It looks like De La Hoya wants to rebuild Lemieux enough to where he can make a Canelo-Lemieux fight on HBO PPV. That wouldn’t be possible right now given how easily Golovkin beat Lemieux last October. Lemieux likely needs at least four or five good victories over name fighters before Golden Boy can ask the boxing public to pay to see him fight Canelo.

Lemieux says he wants to fight Golovkin again because he wants to prove that he’s a better fighter than him. That’s fight that can happen in the future when Golovkin gets a little older and is no longer the super fighter he is today.

With the win, Lemieux captures the vacant WBO NABO middleweight title.