Lemieux says Stevens is first big step for him in 2017

By Boxing News - 01/20/2017 - Comments

Image: Lemieux says Stevens is first big step for him in 2017

By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (36-3, 32 KOs) expects 2017 to be a huge year for him starting with his fight against Curtis Stevens (29-5, 21 KOs) on March 11 at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, New York. The fight will be televised on HBO Boxing After Dark.

This is a pretty even fight between two highly ranked contenders in the 160lb division, both of which have been knocked out by middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. Stevens was stopped in 8 rounds by Golovkin in 2013, whereas Lemieux was knocked out in the 8th by him in 2015.

(Photo par Vincent Ethier)

Stevens did a better job against Golovkin than Lemieux, but not that much better. Neither guy landed anything of note against him. Golovkin picked them both apart with big power shots.

Lemieux is a huge puncher, but he’s facing a guy with a left hook that is possibly just as powerful as any of the shots that he’s capable of throwing. If Stevens is in good health for this fight, then Lemieux is going to be in a world of hurt.

Stevens had an injury problem in his last fight against James De La Rosa last November. If that problem is still there, then Stevens will surely lose. He had a left shoulder injury in the De La Rosa fight. That was just two months ago. Stevens can’t beat Lemieux with just one hand. He needs his left hand to be working for him.

You’d have to say that the Lemieux-Stevens fight is a 50-50 affair with two guys that are good, but neither of them has been able to find a lot of success over the long haul. Lemieux briefly was the IBF middleweight champion after a win over Hassan N’Dam in 2015, but he lost the title in his first fight as a champion against Golovkin in October 2015.

Lemieux, 28, says the fight against Stevens will lead to some bigger fights. He’s not saying who that’ll be against, but it wouldn’t be surprising if his promoters at Eye of the Tiger Promotions is able to wrangle a deal to match him against Mexican star Saul Canelo Alvarez in September if the Gennady Golovkin fight doesn’t get made between Canelo and Golovkin. Lemieux is the perfect opponent for Canelo.

Golden Boy Promotions are interested in matching Canelo against WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders, but he likely will have lost his title by that point, because he’s going to need to defend his belt against his mandatory, which will likely be Avtandil Khurtsidze now that Canelo has chosen to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in his next fight instead of Saunders.

The World Boxing Organization can’t let Saunders freeze his title until September while he waits on Canelo. It’s bad enough that Saunders took 12 entire months before he finally defended his title for the first time against little known fringe contender Artur Akavov.

“We have big plans for 2017 and this will be the first step,” said Lemieux.” I will make sure to take care of Stevens on March 11. Curtis Stevens came knocking on the wrong door.”
Lemieux is ranked #4 WBC, #4 WBO, #6 IBF. Other than a potential fight against Canelo in September, I can’t see Lemieux getting a title shot in 2017. There’s no point in Golovkin fighting Lemieux again after the way that he whipped him two years ago in 2015 in his 8th round knockout win.

I think Lemieux is making a BIG mistake overlooking Stevens. This is a real fight for Lemieux that he could potentially lose. The guys that Lemieux has beaten during his career have been largely mediocre fighters. Lemeiux’s best wins have come against Hassan N’Dam, Gabriel Rosado, Fernando Guerrero and Glen Tapia. Lemieux’s last fight was a 10 round unanimous decision over Christian Rios last October.

Lemieux doesn’t have the track record of past wins to suggest that he can beat anyone good in the division. Stevens has the far better wins on his record against Tureano Johnson. Lemieux would have his hands full against Johnson.

“2017 is going to be a big year for me and Steven is the first step,” said Lemieux. “Then I will have much bigger steps to take care of. I’m going to be victorious. I’m going to be vicious. It’s a fight that all the fans will want to see. Stevens comes to fight. I come to fight. We’ll see who is stronger, who takes the punches better.”

Lemieux is too easy to hit, and he might fall apart if the 31-year-old Stevens is able to hit him with his best shots. Stevens’ left hook is a potent weapon that he uses to knockout a lot of his opponents early. If Lemieux comes out firing shots and leaving himself open like he always does, Stevenson could get a fast knockout on March 11.

Lemieux has serious stamina problems that he’s shown in the past in his losses to Marco Antonio Rubio and Joachim Alcine. You can’t really know if Lemieux has fixed his stamina issues, because many of his fights since then have ended early with him knocking out over-matched fodder opposition.

Since losing to Alcine in 2011, Lemieux has fought the following fighters:

Judiel Zepeda

Alvaro Gaona

Albert Ayrapetan

Robert Sweirzbnski

Marcus Upshaw

Jose Miguel Torres

Fernando Guerrero

Gabriel Rosado

Hassan N’Dam

Gennady Golovkin

Glen Tapia

Christian Fabio

Those are almost all poor opponents with the exception of Rosado, N’Dam and Golovkin. That’s what makes it so hard to know how well Lemieux will do against Stevens. He just doesn’t have the experience against enough quality fighters to during his career to give a good indication of how well he’ll do.

“I am going to be ready,” said Lemieux. This fight is not going to go your way. It’s going to be a much harder fight than you are expecting. It’s not going to end well for you.”

Like with this fight, Lemieux sounded extremely confident before his fight against Golovkin two years ago. But when Lemieux got into the ring with Golovkin, it was clear immediately that he didn’t have near enough boxing skills to be competitive with him. It was embarrassingly one-sided with Golovkin hitting Lemieux at will with jabs and doing whatever he pleased.