By Jason Kim: Middleweight knockout artist David Lemieux (25-0, 24 KO’s) faces Marco Antonio Rubio (49-5-1, 42 KO’s) on April 8th in a WBC middleweight title eliminator bout at the Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The winner of the Lemieux-Rubio fight will be the official challenger for the winner of the June 4th bout between WBC middleweight champion Sebastian Zbik and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

This still doesn’t mean that Lemieux or Rubio will get an immediate shot at the winner of the Chavez Jr. vs. Zbik fight, because the winner of that fight will likely take an optional fight against a weak opponent in their next fight, and depending on whether Chavez Jr. wins it or not, we could see Lemieux getting a step aside fee so that Chavez Jr. can go after someone else before he eventually has to fight Lemieux. In an ideal world, Chavez Jr. or Zbik would immediately fight the winner of the Lemieux-Rubio fight but that’s not likely to happen. Boxing fans are likely going to have to wait a while for this fight to come off.

Lemieux is taking a big step up in competition by facing the hard hitting Rubio, because up until this fight, Lemieux has been facing mostly B level fighters that he’s been able to steamroll over. Rubio is a big puncher and a good fighter when he’s fighting aggressively. He didn’t look good in his loss to Kelly Pavlik, but then again Rubio was fighting defensively for most of the fight. For him to do well, Rubio has to be able to plant and throw. He’s not able to fight on the run. Lemieux cuts off the ring well, so Rubio would be better off to stand and trade with the Canadian slugger and hope that he can get to him before he lands one of his big power shots.