By Luke Furman
While it's not officially confirmed yet, but the second fight between Gennady Golovkin and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez has a very good chance of being canceled in the coming days.
That decision that will have repercussions for former middleweight world champion David Lemieux (38-4, 33 KOs).
As "Le Journal de Montreal" reported last week, Lemieux was in negotiations to fight in the HBO Pay-Per-View co-feature to Canelo-Golovkin on May 5 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. And his promoter was about to reach an agreement on that fight with Golden Boy Promotions.
Lemieux's future changed dramatically when Canelo tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol in two separate tests back in February.
Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) was temporarily suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission and needs to appear at a hearing on April 18th.
The T-Mobile has already announced that they will reimburse fans who have paid tickets to attend Canelo-Golovkin.
And now Golovkin has applied to headline his own card, also on May 5th, but at the MGM Grand of Las Vegas.
All of these events have caused Lemieux's upcoming plans to be turned upside down. Canelo-Golovkin would have generated tens of millions, and the Quebecer had the opportunity to pocket a good amount of money with a percentage of Canadian revenues from pay-per-view.
Now that the main event is in the water, Lemieux's co-promoter Camille Estephan does not intend to lose leverage in the negotiations by accepting less money for Lemieux to face a tough opponent.
This scenario could open the door for Lemieux to have a potential fight in Quebec in the spring, but before those plans are finalized Estephan wants to sit down with HBO executives to see what could be in store for his future in the coming months.
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.
