Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy SIGNS Canadian Slugger David Lemieux

By Lou Eisen

On Dec 6, 2014, at the Barclays Center in famed Brooklyn, New York, the much feared, power-punching Canadian middleweight sensation, slugger David Lemieux, 33-2, 31 KO’s had his coming out party in front of an American audience for the first time and he made it count by ferociously demolishing the former two-time world title challenger and American middleweight journeyman Gabriel Rosado in every round before the bout was wisely stopped by the chief medical officer of the New York State Athletic Commission, Dr. Barry Jordan, at the 1:45 mark of round ten.

Lemieux emphatically showed the decidedly pro Rosado crowd why boxing is indeed the cruelest of all sports, and why, it is commonly referred to as, “The Hurting Game.” It was the worst beating of Rosado’s long career. Rosado suffered a broken left orbital bone and a broken right cheekbone as well to add to his tale of misery.

Lemieux’s scintillating victory over Rosado brought the audience to its feet in every round, as Lemieux’s nuclear powered shots loudly resonated throughout the arena each time they thundered off of Rosado’s unlucky and increasingly disfigured countenance.

Lemieux’s thrilling one-sided victory paid off handsomely career-wise because, sitting in the audience that night, was a very impressed Oscar De La Hoya, the owner and president of Golden Boy Promotions, one of the two most powerful boxing promotional companies in the world along with Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions. GBP has an affinity for talented young fighters like the 26 year-old Lemieux and they know how to nurture and guide such young studs to world titles.

That is why, this past weekend, it was announced that Lemieux had signed a promotional contract with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. Lemieux becomes the second big name Canadian fighter, along with Halifax’s Tyson Cave to sign with a major American promoter (Sampson Lefkowicz) in the past six months. Signing Lemieux is certainly quite a coup for GBP. Golden Boy signed 12 fighters to contracts in the past several weeks including middleweight Lemieux. There is no doubt that Lemieux is the best fighter signed by Golden Boy not only this past week but in quite some time. He is also considered by most boxing observers to really be the only fighter signed by GBP who has a legitimate shot at becoming a world champion. Lemieux possesses the kind of destructive power in his furious fists that breaks bones and ends fights and careers immediately. He is equally devastating with both hands and that gives him a huge step up on most other ranked middleweights fighting today such as Peter Quillen.

The deal with GBP was engineered by Lemieux’s manager, Camile Estephan, the head of Eye of The Tiger Management out of Quebec, Canada. No details were released as to any terms of the agreement. Lemieux has dramatically overhauled his boxing skills since his upset loss to Marco Antonio Rubio in 2011. Yet, even against Rosado, very few people gave him any credit for being a completely different fighter. That will work heavily to his advantage in upcoming fights.

It is interesting to note that Lemieux is not the first Canadian fighter signed by GBP. Nor is he even the first French-Canadian fighter signed by GBP. That honor belonged to Mikael Zewski, a power-punching junior middleweight who signed on with GBP in August of 2010. Zewski was subsequently released by GBP and signed on with Top Rank.

Lemieux is a much more complete fighter than he last time he was seen by an American audience, which is when he was unceremoniously stopped by a seventh round knockout in 2011 at the Bell Centre in Montreal by Mexican Marco Antonio Rubio. Lemieux then lost his very next fight to fellow Canadian Joachim Alcine by a majority decision. It was time for Lemieux to take stock of his fighting style and ring errors and make some big life and boxing changes. He left his old manager to sign with Camille Estephan who paired Lemieux up with a different trainer, Marc Ramsey, which made all the difference in the world

The comeback road was long but ultimately successful. Lemieux got as far as he did before in boxing solely on his powerful right hand. Ramsey made him a much more complete fighter. Prior to this, Lemieux was often and rightly criticized for having a lack of stamina and being basically a one-handed fighter with no jab or left hand to speak of.

Ramsey changed all of that. He tied Lemieux’s right hand behind his back in training and forced him to use only his right hand. Much of the damage Lemieux did to Rosado was done by his new and improved left hand. His stamina held up very well, he boxed well when he had to and set up his power shots with fearsome, thudding like jabs, which violently snapped Rosado’s head back on a regular basis. Any fighter now getting in the ring with Lemieux thinking they are fighting the same guy that lost to Rubio is taking their very life in their hands. This is a new and profoundly better fighter.

Style wise, Lemieux matches up perfectly with lineal, WBC and Ring Magazine world middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto. He is also eight years younger than Cotto. Such a match-up has Fight Of The Year potential written all over it. Lemieux said he would also like a crack at Gennady Golovkin in the near future. Golovkin is considered to be the best middleweight on earth. One good thing about such a fight is that it would be the first such time in his professional career that Golovkin would be facing a fighter with power equivalent if not better than his own and that is a tantalizing proposition.