By Jeff Aranow: David Lemieux (40-4, 34 KOs) will be looking to strengthen his position for a world title shot against Saul Canelo Alvarez when he faces Tureano Johnson (20-2, 14 KOs) this Saturday night on December 15, live on DAZN at Madison Square Garden in New York. Lemieux vs. Johnson are scheduled for 12 rounds, and it’s expected to be a war from start to finish.
For Lemieux, this is another high visibility spot for him to show off his talent to the boxing world. Lemieux is once again fighting on one of Canelo’s undercards. Last September, Lemieux destroyed Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan in the 1st round on the Canelo vs. Gennady Golovkin II card in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lemieux is now fighting Johnson, 34, on the Canelo vs. Rocky Fielding card. It’s a great opportunity for Lemieux to make a case for him getting a world title shot against Canelo in May 2019.
A big knockout victory over the always tough Tureano might be enough to earn the title shot against Alvarez next May. Lemieux needs another highlight reel knockout when he meets with Johnson on Saturday. It won’t be easy though, as Johnson has only been beaten twice during his eight-year pro career, and that was to Curtis Stevens and Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Both of those fights went to the final round before Johnson was stopped. Johnson’s 10th round knockout loss to Stevens in April 2014 was controversial. Johnson looked slightly hurt by Stevens in the 10th, but he was still fighting back and didn’t appear hurt enough for the contest to be stopped.
Lemieux’s career looked like it was on the scrap heap last year in December when he was soundly beaten by former World Boxing Organization middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders by a wide 12 round unanimous decision in front of his own fans at the Place Bell, Laval, Canada. It was bad enough that Lemieux suffered a defeat, but for him to be beaten in such a one-sided way in front of his own boxing fans in Canada, it was bad.
Lemieux looked like he was too heavy for that fight. His weight clearly wasn’t right, and he lacked the mobility to get to the elusive 5’11’ southpaw Saunders in that fight. Since then, Lemieux has taken off weight and looked a lot better in winning his last two fights against Karim Achour and Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan. Lemieux’s conditioning has improved dramatically since the Saunders fight. For Lemieux to beat Tureano on Saturday, he’ll need to be in great shape, as this is a good fighter with power and an excellent boxing pedigree. Tureano is a 2008 Olympian with a lot of talent. He’s got the amateur background to give Lemieux a of problems.
Lemieux gets most of his knockouts early in his fights. For that reason, it would be in his best interest to try and go after Tureano early rather than hanging around hoping to stop him late in the contest. Johnson’s only two knockout defeats in his eight year pro career came late against big punchers. However, it’s still not a good idea for Lemieux to keep Johnson around any longer than he has to on Saturday. If the knockout is there for Lemieux early, he needs to take it. Lemieux can’t afford to let the fight go into the later rounds, since he might not have the stamina to KO Johnson by that point in the contest.
In other undercard fights on the Canelo vs. Fielding card:
Sadam Ali vs. Mauricio Herrera
Tevin Farmer vs. Francisco Fonseca
Ryan Garcia vs. TBA
Yves Ulysse Jr. vs. TBA
Lamont Roach vs. Alberto Mercado
Bilal Akkawy vs. Victor Fonseca
Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. TBA
Katie Taylor vs. Eva Wahlstrom
Canelo Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KOs) is coming off of a big win over IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KO) last September in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canelo, 28, chose to get back into the ring to challenge Rocky Fielding (27-1, 15 KOs) for his WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight title rather than spending the rest of 2018 on the sidelines. Canelo wanted to make sure he fought at least twice in 2018, being that he missed his his fight in May after being suspended six months by the Nevada State Athletic Commission after testing positive twice for the banned substance clenbuterol.
Canelo decided not to defend his newly won World Boxing Council middleweight title in December. Instead, Canelo wanted to add to his legacy by winning a third division world title at 168 against Fielding. Canelo could have received more attention from the boxing world if he’d stayed put at 160, and defended his WBC title against his mandatory challenge Jermall Charlo. There’s a lot more interest from the boxing public in the U.S in a fight between Canelo and Charlo. Fielding isn’t viewed as one of the better fighters at 168. The 31-year-old Fielding is technically a champion, but he’s not established himself as one of the premier fighters at super middleweight yet.
This will be the first time Fielding has fought in the United States. He’s been given a real gift in being selected by Canelo Alvarez for the honor of facing him in December. Canelo could have picked anyone from the 160 or 168 lb weight classes to fight, but he selected the 6’1″ Fielding. It’s like winning the lottery. However, Fielding isn’t being given much of a chance of beating Canelo by the odds-makers, and the boxing fans. They see this as a mismatch in favor of Canelo, and that’s obviously been tough for Fielding to have to deal with. He doesn’t like being overlooked by Canelo and the fans. Fielding plans on proving everyone wrong when he gets inside the ring with Canelo on Saturday night, as he doesn’t view himself as only having a puncher’s chance of winning.
“If they say I have a puncher’s chance, then I’ll let them, but then December 15th I’ll show them what chance I do have, and if it’s a puncher’s chance, it may be, but if it’s not, then it’s not,” Fielding said. “It’s just whatever happens on December 15th. I’m prepared well, so we’ll have to see what happens.”
Fielding only has one defeat on his record, and that was a 1st round knockout to Callum Smith in 2015. Smith came out of the blocks quickly in that fight and caught Fielding cold. There was no way that Fielding could recover after he was hurt early in the 1st by a hard left hook from Smith. Fielding has come back from that loss to put together a string of victories. In his last fight, Fielding beat WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion Tyron Zeuge by a 5th round knockout last July. It was a good win for Fielding, since a lot of boxing fans were counting him out against the German fighter.