Curtis Stevens: Me And Lemieux Should Fight For Shot at Canelo

Published Sat Sep 24, 2016, 1:38 PM

Curtis Stevens has a blueprint for Canelo Alvarez to fight a hard-hitting, legitimate middleweight May 6.

Stevens suggested to BoxingScene.com that he and former IBF middleweight champ David Lemieux should fight early in 2017 for the right to become Alvarez’s next opponent. Both boxers have fights scheduled for later in the fall and would need to win those bouts for Stevens’ plan to possibly materialize.

“For the best interests of a great fight, me and Lemieux fight in the first quarter [of 2017],” Stevens said. “He’s fighting October and I’m fighting in November. We could set this up for the end of January or the beginning of February. Then the winner gets Canelo. Just settle it like that.”

Montreal’s Lemieux (35-3, 32 KOs) is scheduled to face Argentina’s Cristian Fabian Rios (21-7-3, 6 KOs) in a 10-rounder October 22 at Bell Centre in Montreal. Main Events still is seeking an opponent for Stevens’ tuneup fight on the Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward undercard November 19 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Brooklyn’s Stevens (28-5, 21 KOs), who said Lemieux is “hiding” from him, added that he realizes it’s more likely that promoter Oscar De La Hoya, with an eye on making the long-awaited Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin showdown for next September, would make an Alvarez-Lemieux match because Golden Boy Promotions represents Mexico’s Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) and Lemieux.

De La Hoya first mentioned that a Lemieux-Stevens fight was a possibility after they both scored impressive technical knockout victories on the Alvarez-Amir Khan undercard May 7 at T-Mobile Arena.

Stevens was considered a potential opponent for Lemieux’s October 22 bout. That possibility was eliminated once it was determined HBO would not televise a card that night and there wouldn’t be enough money available to pay Lemieux and Stevens what they think their fight is worth.

Alvarez, meanwhile, suffered a fractured right thumb during his ninth-round TKO win against England’s Liam Smith (23-1, 13 KOs) on Saturday night in Arlington, Texas. The injury is expected to push back his next fight until May 6, the day after Cinco de Mayo.

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.