By Keith Idec

Curtis Stevens isn’t concerned that his left hand will become an issue in training camp or during the middleweight contender’s March 11 fight against David Lemieux.

Stevens suffered a contusion to his left hand, directly above his wrist, during his 10-round, unanimous-decision victory over James De La Rosa on November 19 in Las Vegas. The injury didn’t require surgery, but Stevens (29-5, 21 KOs) wore a splint and rested the painful bruise for about a month-and-a-half.

“I just needed some time to let the swelling go down,” Stevens told BoxingScene.com on Friday from his training camp in Florida. “I just had a little hand contusion. It wasn’t broken or anything. I just had to let it heal. I just kept icing it, was getting a little therapy, and I’m ready to go.”

Stevens suspects his hand injury encouraged Montreal’s Lemieux (36-3, 32 KOs) to accept their HBO “Boxing After Dark” main event, which will take place at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York.

“I don’t think he took it because he’s ready to fight,” Stevens said. “I think he took it because he thinks he has an advantage because my hand was hurt in the last fight. He thinks I’m at a disadvantage, but my hand is perfectly fine and on March 11th, I’m ready to rock and roll.”

The 31-year-old Stevens seemed headed for a knockout win against De La Rosa (23-5, 13 KOs), of San Benito, Texas, through three rounds on the Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev HBO Pay-Per-View undercard at T-Mobile Arena.

His punch out-put slowed down after three rounds, though, and Stevens informed trainer John David Jackson following the fourth round that he had injured his left hand. The pain prohibited him from throwing his most effective punch, his left hook, for much of the rest of the fight.

Since defeating De La Rosa, the Brooklyn native hadn’t used his left hand for boxing until earlier this week. So far, so good.

“I banged on it the other day with my [16-ounce gloves on],” Stevens said. “It felt great. Now we’ve just gotta try it out with the [10-ounce gloves] and make sure everything’s good. But with the 16s and the wrap, it feels like there’s nothing wrong with it. I’ve just gotta keep building it up. But it’s good, though.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.