By Dan Ambrose: Moments ago, it was reported that former IBF 160lb world champion David Lemieux failed to make weight for his non-title contest against James De La Rosa. Lemieux-De La Rosa were supposed to be fighting each other this Saturday night on March 12 in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Olympia Theatre in Montreal, Canada.
However, Lemieux came in over the three agreed upon 163lb catch-weight limit Lemieux weighed in at 165.6lbs to De La Rosa’s 162.
(Photo Credit: Eye of the Tiger Management) By Dan Ambrose: David Lemieux (34-3, 31 KOs) is dead certain that he’ll be facing WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in the near future. Lemieux is co-promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, who also promotes Canelo.
Lemieux says that he will definitely be facing Canelo. Lemieux isn’t saying when the fight with Canelo will be taking place, but it wouldn’t be at all surprising if it happens this year in September on the Mexican Independence Day holiday weekend, because that’s when Canelo will be fighting after his fight with Amir Khan on May 7.
By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux thinks Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) is making a bully like move by selecting welterweight Amir Khan (31-3, 19 Kos) for his first defense of his WBC middleweight title on May 7.
While Lemieux does think Khan is a very good fighter, he sees him as simply too small for the heavier Canelo, who could outweigh Khan by a considerable amount of weight by the time the two of them step foot inside the ring at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lemieux feels that Khan might end up getting hurt by Canelo in this fight on HBO pay-per-view.
By Jeff Aranow: Former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-3, 31 KOs) says he wants a rematch with IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in the near future. Lemieux was stopped by Golovkin in the 8th round last October in a fight televised on HBO pay-per-view.
Lemieux, 27, didn’t let his hands go in that fight, and it turned out to be a one-sided fight from start to finish for the Kazakhstan fighter. Lemieux says he realizes what he did wrong in that fight, and he’s been working on fixing those flaws in his game.
By Dan Ambrose: Last time we saw David Lemieux (34-3, 31 Kos), he was getting bulldozed by IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin through eight rounds last October. Lemieux was little more than a punching bag for Golovin inside the ring for eight rounds.
It wasn’t competitive, as Lemieux didn’t appear to even try to put up much of a fight. Lemieux lost his IBF middleweight title in defeat against Golovkin. This Saturday night, Lemieux will start the rebuilding phase of his career to try and get back to where he was before.
By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-3, 31 KOs) will be fighting this Saturday night on March 12 against James “The King” De La Rosa (23-3, 13 KOs) in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Olympia Theatre, in Montreal, Canada. The Lemieux vs. De La Rosa fight will be televised on Fox Deportes on Saturday night. It should be an interesting fight for as long as it lasts. Don’t blink though because you might miss it. This is probably not going to last long.
Both fighters are coming off of knockout losses in their last fights. Lemieux was stopped in the 8th round by IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin last October in Madison Square Garden in New York. De La Rosa, 28, was knocked out over a year ago in December 2014 in a 5th round knockout by the hard hitting Hugo Centeno Jr.
By Al Classico: Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29KOs), aka ‘The Miracle Man’ has really cemented himself as one of the legitimate middleweight challengers to Golovkin with his emphatic 1 round stoppage of fellow top middleweight Peter Quillin in December 2015. It’s hard to gauge whether that KO was the result of Jacob’s skill level or due to a lapse of concentration and a slow start from Peter Quillin but it was likely a culmination of both.
Perhaps we need to see a rematch between the two to get a more accurate picture on how good both Jacobs and Quillin are in respect to each other. If Jacobs opts not to give Quillin an immediate rematch, but instead decides to take on the biggest challenge of his career and face Golovkin, then how is he likely to fare against the so called ‘Middleweight Monster’?
By Al Classico: Billy Joe Saunders (23-0, 12 KO’s), The undefeated WBO champion threw a real spanner into the works when he defeated Andy Lee in late 2015 and derailed a potential, higher profile Lee- Golovkin showdown this year. With the defeat of Lee and the acquisition of a ‘world champion’ belt, his name was immediately thrust into the conversation as a next up Golovkin opponent.
According to some reports, there was an offer tabled to Saunders for a fight against Golovkin in April, however the negotiations collapsed, with money allegedly being the biggest barrier to the deal being struck. Saunders has since opted to go in a different direction at this stage of his career but hopefully this fight can be made at some point in the not-too-distant future as it will be a really intriguing match-up. So if the fight does eventually get made, how would Saunders fare if he were to step up and step into the ring with Golovkin?
By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-3, 31 KOs) will be returning to the ring in two months from now to face the 28-year-old ring rusty James De La Rosa (23-3, 13 KOs) on March 12 at the Olympia Theatre, in Montreal, Canada. The fight isn’t expected to be televised on HBO. It’s likely that the network is waiting for a more compelling match-up before they televise Lemieux again.
De La Rosa is a disappointing choice for Lemieux, because there had been talk that Lemieux could be facing Willie Monroe Jr. or Curtis Stevens next. Those are unquestionable tougher opponents than De La Rosa, who has not fought since being knocked out in the 5th round in December 2014.
By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-3, 31 KOs) will be back in the ring two months from now in March, possibly against former world title challengers Curtis Stevens (27-5, 20 KOs) and/or Willie Monroe Jr. (19-2, 6 KOs), according to Dan Rafael. Both Stevens and Monroe were knocked out in the past by champion Gennady Golovkin.
Lemieux, 27, was stopped by Golovkin in the 8th round last October in a fight that was televised by HBO pay-per-view from Madison Square Garden in New York. Lemieux talked a good game ahead of time, but he failed to back up his talk in the ring. Indeed, Lemieux was timid in the fight and didn’t attack Golovkin the way he had said he was going to.