By Luke Furman
As previously reported on BoxingScene.com, former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux will not be the dance partner of four division champion Miguel Cotto (41-5, 33 KOs) on December 2 at New York's Madison Square Garden.
Instead, the Puerto Rican superstar will defend his WBO junior middleweight title against Sadam Ali (25-1, 14 KOs), who is moving up from the welterweight division.
Cotto apparently had some concerns about meeting Lemieux (38-3, 33 KOs) at the middleweight limit of 160-pounds.
So where does this leave Lemieux?
According to The Montreal Journal, Lemieux was offered an HBO televised co-feature position on the Cotto vs. Ali undercard - but his manager Camille Estephan rejected that proposal, because he believes his fighter deserves better billing.
Lemieux is a boxing superstar in Canada and a big ticket seller in the country.
The Canadian paper indicates that Estephan, who runs Eye of the Tiger Management, is looking to stage a card on on December 16 at La Place Bell in Laval - with Lemieux as the headliner that night.
HBO is reportedly interested in picking up the fight - if Lemieux is facing a quality opponent.
Estephan has been talking with the representatives of WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders. However, they are very far apart on the amount of money it would take to bring Saunders over to Quebec.
The Montreal Journal reports that two of the opponents being mentioned for Lemieux include Hugo Centeno (26-1, 14 KO) and James Kirkland (32-2, 28 KO). Regarding Kirkland, that would be a hard sell for an HBO headliner. Kirkland has been inactive since getting brutally knocked out by Canelo Alvarez in May of 2015. Centeno is another matter, after scoring a brutal knockout of undefeated Immanuwel Aleem in August.
Lemieux has appeared twice this year, with a bruising knockout win over Curtis Stevens in March and then a decision win over Marcos Reyes in May. Four out of Lemieux's last five fights have taken place in the United States.
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.
