By Luke Furman
Former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux is being positioned to fight in early December at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
There are ongoing discussions to see Lemieux (38-3, 33 KO) collide with four division world champion Miguel Cotto (41-5, 33 KO), who headlines that event.
But whether or not Lemieux and Cotto will face each other on the card or appear in separate fights is up in the air.
Cotto is planning to end his long career on the December date and wants an important opponent to close out his career. He returned to the ring last month in Los Angeles and captured the WBO junior middleweight title with a decision win over Yoshihiro Kamegai of Japan.
Both Cotto and Lemieux work with Golden Boy Promotions.
According to Lemieux's manager, Camille Estephan of Eye of The Tiger Management, they have yet to hear any word from on whether or not Cotto is intending to go in their direction.
That matter is certainly being discussed, but it has not been finalized. At the same time, Lemieux is determined to fight before the end of the year and there are less than three months remaining in 2017.
Lemieux has seen action twice in 2017. He fought earlier in the year and scored a brutal one-punch knockout of Curtis Stevens. He made a very quick return, on the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. undercard in May, and won a decision over Marcos Reyes.
"It's not finalized yet, there's a lot of discussion, but December is coming and we want David to fight before the end of the year," admitted Estephan to RDS.
"As for Cotto, he is the king of New York.... he is the one who will decide his opponent. If it's not going to be David, then we have other plans in the bank. "
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.