David Lemieux Wins Unanimous Decision Over Cristian Fabian: “Bring on Canelo Alvarez Next!”

By Jeffrey “Italian Medallion” Cellini

At the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Saturday night, former middleweight champion David Lemieux, 36-3, 32 KO’s was able to handle a tough Cristian Fabian Rios 21-8-3, 6 KO’s, and walk away with a ten-round unanimous decision. Two judges scored the fight 100-90, while the third judge had scored the bout 99-91.

Lemieux started quickly, backing up Rios to ropes early, and winning the most of the exchanges. The 33-year old Argentinian, who was the less active than Lemieux, had his best moments in the third and ninth rounds, especially when he was able to utilize his left jab effectively. Unfortunately, the Canadian was able to execute his strategy of pounding Rios’ body with regularity to control the fight. “We wanted to attack his body a lot and finish with punches to the head”, said trainer Marc Ramsay afterwards. “We thought we could slow him down and that’s what we did”.

Lemieux was often tagged when he let his guard down throughout the fight, allowing Rios to land some big shots. However, after giving away the ninth round, Lemieux finished strongly in the tenth to leave no doubt about who was the winner.
“I am not 100 % satisfied”, said Lemieux. “There are things that I wanted to ten times better. Some things that shouldn’t happen again, some errors at the start of the rounds that cost me the knockout. But hats off to Rios. He boxed well and merits all my respect. He demonstrated a lot of courage and adapted well”.

David Lemieux has now won two straight fights since his loss to Gennady Golovkin last October. The 27-year old defeated Glen Tapia in May by fourth round technical knockout in a scheduled ten-round contest. Lemieux is now setting his sights on a possible fight with Canelo Alvarez.
“The ultimate goal is to fight Canelo. I cannot stop repeating, but that’s it. I think it will happen in 2017. Discussions are already underway”, said manager Camille Estephan. “It is easy for us to make the fight, because we are close to Golden Boy. But Canelo knows that a weight between 154 and160, it will not be possible”.

The WBO Junior Middleweight champion Canelo has indicated that his next fight will be at 160 pounds, but his team has mentioned that he is likely to fight at 158 to test the middleweight waters first.

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