By Lem Satterfield

Unbeaten middleweight prospect David Lemieux of Canada certainly is brimming with confidence.

Earlier on Wednesday, the unbeaten, 22-year-old was quoted on BoxingScene.com saying that he believes southpaw WBC "emeritus" champion, Sergio Martinez (47-2-2, 26 knockouts), of Argentina "would be no problem for me," adding that he could "break" Martinez "down and then finish him off."

Lemieux (25-0, 24 KOs) also has said that, assuming he can clean out the talent in the middleweight division, he would like to rise to an eventual challenge against 31-year-old southpaw, IBF super middleweight king Lucian Bute (28-0, 23 KOs), who is also of Canada.

"I would say that I have a lot of advantages over Lucien Bute because of the way that he fights and because of certain aspects of his technique. He's a great fighter, but there are a lot of flaws in his boxing," said Lemieux.

"Lucien Bute is a great fighter from the outside, but when he gets an inside fighter, he has a lot of problems against them," said Lemieux. "For me, my perfection is being an inside fighter. I'm a very good inside fighter. I think that I could pick him off and that I would do very good against him."

On Friday night, Lemieux meets Mexico's Marco Antonio Rubio (49-5-1, 42KOs) in an ESPN televised, WBC eliminator before his partisan fans at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

In victory over Rubio, Lemieux could be in line to face the winner of a June 4, WBC middleweight title bout between Germany's 29-year-old Sebastian Zbik (30-0, 10 knockouts) and Mexico's 25-year-old Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 20 KOs).

Zbik-Chavez was sanctioned as a title match up in early February after Martinez was stripped of the belt and declared the organization's "emeritus" champion. The WBC then elevated Zbik to the status of full champion and mandated that his first defense be against Chavez.

The WBC has given the Zbik-Chavez winner the leeway to make one optional defense prior to facing Lemieux, meaning that Martinez could face the Zbik-Chavez winner perhaps in the fall.