David Lemieux is '50-50' For Canelo-Khan Card, Says Manager

By Steve Kim

It was a tumultuous weekend for Camille Estephan, who had to deal with the situation surrounding David Lemieux (34-3, 31KOs), who failed to make weight for his fight against James De La Rosa and eventually had this fight scrapped. There had been plans to feature the former IBF middleweight titlist on the Saul Alvarez-Amir Khan pay-per-view undercard on May 7th in Las Vegas.

When asked if this mis-step has jeopardized that possibility, Estephan -the head of Eye of the Tiger Management - told BoxingScene.com on Tuesday.

"Possibly yeah, it hurt his chances from everyone's point of view, including mine."

Estephan says of the odds of this still taking place are - "still 50-50, we'll see. We're going to have a conversation with our partners (Golden Boy Promotions) and see what we'll decide."

There were reports that Lemieux, who was last seen getting stopped in seven rounds by Gennady Golovkin on October 17th, was in play to face Alvarez in the fall.

"The thing is, it's a situation with David where he can not go under 160 so if 'Canelo' agrees to fight at 160, it's a possibility. If' not, it's out out of the question,"stated Estephan.

Problem is, for the time being Lemieux has his own issues given that he couldn't even come in at the contracted weight of 163 pounds last Friday, which is a full three pounds over the middleweight limit.

Estephan promised,"We are insisting that we have to do everything necessary to identify why this happen and eradicate it and making sure it never happens again."

Slowly, the Alvarez-Khan undercard is coming together and soon a decision will be made with Lemieux.

"We'll have to do that soon because May 7th is around the corner, in boxing things go real fast," said Estephan ."We have to know and make that decision very quickly, so hopefully this week."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com