By Jake Donovan
The June 20 showdown between David Lemieux and Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam comes with a vacant middleweight at stake, and for the moment only has Canada PPV confirmed as its televised coverage.
Those plans figure to change in the coming days.
While Lemieux is now aligned with HBO, the American cable giant was unable to squeeze the upcoming middleweight bout into its schedule for varying reasons. However, Lemieux’s team is in the process of ensuring that stateside boxing fans are able to tune in for the vacant title fight.
“We are talking to various networks,” confirmed Golden Boy Promotions President and Founder Oscar de la Hoya, Lemieux’s promoter. “We will have an announcement coming shortly. There will be US TV involved.”
Lemieux (33-2, 31KOs) takes his first swing at a major title. The hard-hitting knockout artist from Canada has won eight straight following back-to-back losses in 2011, including his HBO-televised 10th round stoppage win over Gabriel Rosado last December, marking his first fight in the United States and on HBO.
N’Dam (31-1, 18KOs) briefly held a middleweight belt and also two separate interim title reigns.
The Cameroon-born boxer—who lives in France but now fights out of Los Angeles—recovered from six knockdowns to deliver a remarkably competitive challenge in his lone loss to date versus Peter Quillin. Their Oct. ’12 bout saw his title reign go one and done, having since won four straight.
Included among his win streak is a 12-round win over Curtis Stevens last October, earning a mandatory title fight with the ESPN2-televised victory.
The title fight opportunity for N’Dam was to come versus Jermain Taylor, who regained a belt one week after N’Dam’s win over Stevens. However, Taylor’s severe out-of-ring issues landed him in jail and prompting deep mental health evaluation, and was forced to vacate the belt in the process.
Lemieux landed in the vacant title fight after higher-ranked challengers Felix Sturm and Billy Joe Saunders passed in favor of other opportunities.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox