By Keith Idec
David Lemieux is 100-percent certain weight won’t be an issue for his May 7 fight against Glen Tapia.
The former IBF middleweight champion is just three weeks removed from failing to make weight for his March 12 fight against James De la Rosa in Montreal. Lemieux came in nearly three pounds over the contracted weight of 163, three above the middleweight limit, and De la Rosa (23-3, 13 KOs) refused to proceed with their scheduled 10-round fight.
Several days later, negotiations began for a Lemieux-Tapia fight on the Canelo Alvarez-Amir Khan undercard at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (HBO Pay-Per-View). Tapia (23-2, 15 KOs), of Passaic, New Jersey, is moving up from 154 to 160 pounds for the Lemieux match, thus Lemieux (34-3, 31 KOs) agreed to pay a substantial penalty per pound if he comes in over the 160-pound limit for their 10-round fight.
“It’s not gonna be difficult at all,” Lemieux said on a recent conference call. “I’m pretty close to my weight. My last fight I had a lot adjustments to be made. I changed a few things that didn’t work to my advantage. I can use excuses, but there’s no excuses. People don’t wanna hear that. I’ll make 160. It’s not even gonna be a problem.”
The 5-foot-9 Lemieux claims he still can make middleweight comfortably and that there’s no reason for him to even consider moving up to the super middleweight division. The 27-year-old Montreal native has weighed in at as much as 166 pounds for a professional fight, but basically has been a middleweight for the past 7½ years.
“I’m a 160 fighter,” Lemieux said. “I didn’t kill myself. I just tried something different, and on the last week I had a little issue with the weight from being sick and trying to make the weight with the new adjustments and the new nutritionist. I could go on and on in details, but it’s not a problem for me to make 160.”
Lemieux hasn’t fought since losing by eighth-round technical knockout to Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) in their middleweight championship unification fight Oct. 17 at Madison Square Garden.
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.
