By Keith Idec
Oscar De La Hoya confirmed Tuesday what seemed obvious when the David Lemieux-Glen Tapia fight was made nearly two weeks ago.
The winner of their 10-round middleweight match May 7 will become a potential opponent for Canelo Alvarez.
“I do see the winner from Glen Tapia and David Lemieux facing Canelo down the line,” De La Hoya said during a conference call to discuss the Lemieux-Tapia bout. “This was obviously by design. Right now, Canelo is the man in boxing. He’s the pay-per-view star. I believe that Glen Tapia and David Lemieux are more than capable to showcase their talent and give you guys a great show, and possibly be in line to fight Canelo. This is why this fight is so important for both fighters as well.”
Lemieux-Tapia will be the co-featured fight before an HBO Pay-Per-View main event that’ll match Alvarez against Amir Khan at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The 27-year-old Lemieux (34-3, 31 KOs) will fight for the first time since Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) stopped him in the eighth round of their middleweight title unification fight Oct. 17 at Madison Square Garden. Kazakhstan’s Golovkin wants to battle Alvarez later this year, but it has become increasingly clear that Alvarez won’t seriously consider facing Golovkin until sometime in 2017.
“I like Canelo,” Lemieux said. “He’s a good fighter. Like I said, I’m not afraid of nobody in the boxing world. And I don’t just say this to try to promote myself. … I actually want to beat everybody and to fight all the top names out there. I don’t wanna avoid nobody.
“Canelo, he’s a significant fighter in the middleweight [division]. First of all, I would like to see him make the middleweight line. And yes, it will be a great fight. First I have something to accomplish, and to make sure I get everything straightened out with Glen Tapia on May 7th. And then I’ll fight anybody in the middleweight [division]. It’s not a problem for me.”
The Montreal native would love to face Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) if the Mexican superstar defeats England’s Khan (31-3, 19 KOs), but Lemieux said he won’t face Alvarez at a weight lower than the middleweight limit of 160 pounds. Alvarez, the WBC middleweight champion, will fight Khan, a natural welterweight, at a contracted catch weight of 155 pounds.
“I’m a middleweight,” Lemieux said. “I’ll never go below 160, not even for ‘X’ amounts of money.”
The 26-year-old Tapia (23-2, 15 KOs), of Passaic, New Jersey, hasn’t fought since France’s Michel Soro (27-1-1, 17 KOs) beat him by fourth-round TKO last May 8 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. He, too, would love the lucrative chance to challenge Alvarez.
“It’s great because he’s a great fighter,” Tapia said of the possibility of fighting Alvarez. “He’s a great champion. He’s becoming a legend. He’s done so much in the sport. It’s motivational. … But I’ve got to just worry about Lemieux. I can’t worry about nobody else. I’ve got to worry about Lemieux and just get through this fight. I really can’t think about the future or Canelo or anything.
“He’s a great fighter, though. He’s done so much, being so young. He’s my age and he has accomplished so much in the sport. God bless him and I hope we do meet in the future because that means I did good in this fight.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.