David Lemieux is a Canadian Middleweight boxer who held the IBF Middleweight Belt in 2015. BoxRec ranked Lemieux as the world’s ninth best active super middleweight in the year 2015. He has a professional win-loss record of 41-4, with 34 of those wins coming by knockout. David Lemieux is a polyglot, being fluent in five different languages. Lemieux can speak French, English, Arabic, Spanish and Armenian. After being managed by Groupe Yvon Michel (GYM) for many years, David Lemieux switched to Eye of The Tiger Management (EOTTM) in 2015. He is one of the better known Canadian boxers after Adonis Stevenson.

David Lemieux: All You Need to Know

Where was David Lemieux born?

David Lemieux was born on December 22, 1988 in the city of Montreal, inside the Quebec province of Canada. His father is a French-Canadian man named and his mother is Aznive Khavloudjian, an ethnic Armenian from Lebanon. The couple divorced soon and David Lemieux’ mother remarried Garo Melekian, an Armenian. Melekian, adopted both of Khavloudjian’s children from her previous marriage and became a mentor to David Lemieux.

Where did David Lemieux study?

David Lemieux went to the Saint-François-de-Laval school, located in the Ahuntsic district of Montréal. David Lemieux was not a good student and spent a lot of his time on the streets. He kept getting into street fights and was eventually expelled from the school. That was the time when his adoptive father, Garo Melekian started encouraging him to focus and Lemieux started his training in Ahuntsic’s Ring 83 after being invited by neighbouring boxer Baha Laham.

How was David Lemieux’ amateur career?

After starting boxing at the age of nine, David Lemieux went on to win the Canadian Amateur Championship three times. However, he didn’t have the most impressive start, losing four straight fights to start with. However, he went on to win 16 fights in a row, capturing four national junior titles in the process.

Even though David Lemieux had been very successful in his amateur career, he wasn’t interested in trying to join the Canadian Olympic team as it was inadequately supported during the run up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Lemieux and his trainer Russ Anber saw the Olympics as a dead end which would pit him against more experienced boxers and ultimately proving detrimental to a fighter with aspirations to turn professional. David Lemieux completed his amateur career with a win loss record of 91-12.

When did David Lemieux turn pro?

David Lemieux decided to turn pro at the age of 17 but had to wait for another year because of the rules of the Canadian Boxing Federation. He was signed to a multi-fight contract by Groupe Yvon Michel (GYM), a Quebec-based promotion company. The contract pitted him against opponents in four-round bouts that quickly became crowd favorites in Montreal. David Lemieux quickly rose in popularity and was featured on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. He was also the part of the undercard during many championship events. David Lemieux had a great start to his professional career, winning his first 20 fights. 

David Lemieux: His Best Fights

Lemieux vs. Rubio

On March 11, 2011 it was announced that Lemieux would appear in a WBC final eliminator against Marco Antonio Rubio (49-5-1, 43 KOs) at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec on April 8 in the main event of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. Lemieux was favored to win in his hometown against the Mexican veteran. He came into the fight with a perfect record of 25 wins and no losses, with 24 wins inside the distance. Both fighters came in at 159 pounds. During the first five rounds, Lemieux dominated Rubio by landing hard power punches to his guard. Rubio came to life in round six and began to land hard punches as Lemieux tired. In the seventh round, Rubio knocked down Lemieux with a right hook to the head. Lemieux got up, but Rubio continued where he left off and threw more punches at him. With only seconds left in round seven, Lemieux’s corner had seen enough and threw in the towel to stop the fight. After the fight, Lemieux’ trainer Russ Anber said that Lemieux still has a lot to work to do and improve on if he wants to reach the top level.

Lemieux vs. Alcine

In October 2011, Lemieux signed a deal with Eye of the Tiger Management. At the same time, his promoter Groupe Yvon Michel, announced that he would next fight former WBA light middleweight champion Joachim Alcine (32-2-1, 19 KOs) on December 10 at the Bell Centre in Montreal. In a huge upset, Alcine defeated Lemieux. Lemieux was quoted as a 5 to 1 favorite by the wager trackers. The fight was declared a majority decision over 12 rounds, with scores of 116-112 by two judges and an even scoring of 114-114 by the third one. Alcine was awarded the WBC International Middleweight title. Most ringside observers thought Alcine won the fight. Speaking after the fight, Lemieux praised Alcine, however felt like he did enough, “I tip my hat to him, he’s a true champion. I really thought I won. Now I have to return to the gym and start working out. I was prepared for this fight and took it very seriously, but I may have mismanaged my energy. Joachim, he knew what he had to do. I know what mistakes I made and I know that I can beat him.” Yvon Michel admitted they underestimated Alcine. Alcine contemplated a move back down to light middleweight, but stated he was open to a rematch.

Lemieux vs. Rosado

His next bout was confirmed on October 20, 2014 to take place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn against fringe contender Gabriel Rosado (21-8, 13 KOs), defending his NABF middleweight belt on December 6. The fight was promoted by Golden Boy Promotions as a ‘one-off’ deal, according to Lemieux’s manager Camille Estephan. Going into the fight, Lemieux wanted to take the opportunity to introduce himself as a threat to the middleweight division. The fight was shown live on HBO Boxing After Dark. Lemieux similarly dominated Rosado, dropping him in the third and pounding away at his mostly outmatched foe until the referee stopped the bout in the tenth due to swelling and cuts surrounding Rosado’s eyes. It was the first HBO televised bout for Lemieux, who was hoping to challenge unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in the near future. In the post-fight interview, Lemieux praised Rosado, “Hats off to Rosado. He is one hell of a fighter. I had tremendous preparation. I wanted to show all of you what I could do. I wanted to make a statement. Rosado is even better than I thought. I hope you enjoyed it.” There were 6,532 people in attendance for the fight. At the time of stoppage, Lemieux was ahead 90-80, 89-81 and 88-82 on all three judges’ scorecards. According to CompuBox stats, Lemieux landed 227 of 621 punches thrown (37%) and Rosado landed 142 of his 398 thrown (36%) The fight averaged 906,000 viewers and peaked at 1.16 million viewers.

Lemieux vs. N’Dam

In February 2015, Lemieux accepted a fight against former interim WBO titleholder Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam (31-1, 18 KOs) for the vacant IBF middleweight championship. N’Dam became the mandatory challenger when he defeated Curtis Stevens in October 2014. Then-IBF champion Jermain Taylor, was facing legal issues, thus stripped of the title. The IBF originally ordered N’Dam vs. Felix Sturm for the vacant title, however Sturm stated he no longer wished to fight at 160 pounds. The IBF then ordered British contender Billy Joe Saunders, however he also passed as he was already mandated to fight for the WBO title. IBF then turned to their #5 ranked Lemieux. The purse bid was won by Golden Boy, who were the only promoter to turn up and bid the minimum required $102,000 for the fight. On May 13, Golden Boy and Eye of the Tiger Management announced the fight would take place at the Bell Centre in Montreal on June 20. With over two weeks to go, it was confirmed the fight would be televised live on Fox Sports 2. HBO, who has recently signed Lemieux were unable to squeeze the bout into their boxing schedule for unknown reasons. Lemieux scored four knockdowns en route to a victory by unanimous decision. Two judges scored the bout 115-109 while the third saw it 114-110 for Lemieux, who improved to 34-2 with 31 knockouts. Over the 12 rounds, Lemieux landed 216 of 597 punches thrown (36%), while N’Dam landed 202 of his 627 thrown (32%). Lemieux out landed N’Dam in 4 of the rounds. Rounds 6, 7, 9 and 10 saw both fighters land an equal number of punches. The whole card only averaged 163,000 viewers. The win set up a showdown in October with unbeaten Golovkin, considered to be the best middleweight fighter in the world in 2015.

Lemieux vs. Golovkin

It was announced in July 2015 that Gennady Golovkin would be defending his three world titles against Lemieux in a unification fight at the Madison Square Garden in New York City on October 17, 2015 live by HBO Pay-Per-View. Both boxers took to Twitter to announce the news. Lemieux won the then vacant IBF title by outpointing Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam in June 2015.

Lemieux lost the IBF middleweight title to Golovkin before a sold-out crowd of 20,548 at Madison Square Garden. Lemieux was down once in round 5. Golovkin was dominant from the first bell, landing punch after punch before the referee mercifully stepped in and stopped the fight in the eighth round. Golovkin was also ahead on all three judges’ scorecards (70-62 3 times). Lemieux earned a career high payday of $1.5 million and was guaranteed a share of PPV revenue whilst Golovkin earned a career high $2 million also including a share of the PPV profits. According to CompuBox statistics, Lemieux only landed 89 of 335 punches thrown (27%). Golovkin had a connect rate of 51%, landing 280 of 549 punches.

Lemieux vs. Stevens

On January 16, 2017 a fight between Lemieux and former world title challenger Curtis Stevens (29-5, 21 KOs) was finally agreed to be the main event of a HBO: Boxing After Dark card on March 11 at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York. Lemieux won the fight after he knocked Stevens out with a short left hook. The referee Charlie Fitch waived the count immediately after Stevens was left unconscious. The stoppage took place in round 3, at 1 minute and 59 seconds. Emergency personnel entered the ring immediately to attend to Stevens. Fortunately, he was conscious while being stretchered out of the arena. The fight averaged 606,000 viewers and peaked at 672,000 viewers for HBO. On Sunday morning following the fight, Stevens representatives confirmed he was fine.

Only a month after knocking out Stevens, Lemieux was added to the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. undercard at the T-Mobile Arena in Nevada on May 6, 2017. His opponent was announced as 29 year old Mexican boxer Marcos Reyes (35-4, 26 KOs) in a 10-round fight. Reyes, being (3-3) in his last six bouts, was known for going the 10 round distance in a losing effort to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in 2015. Both fighters agreed to a catch-weight for the fight and weighed in at 163 pounds. It was reported that Lemieux would earn $200,000 compared to Reyes who would earn $45,000. Lemieux won the fight by unanimous decision. The judges scored the fight 99-90, 99-90 and 98-91 in his favor. Lemieux landed the harder and cleaner punches throughout the fight. Reyes showed great determination and stayed on his feet landing quick combinations, although receiving a cut above the right eye in round 2. Reyes also lost a point in round 8 for hitting after the bell. Lemieux gave a good effort from the start, but started to tire out through the middle rounds, although he did enough to still win them, landing the bigger punches. Lemieux got his second wind in round 8, but still did not have the same power from the early rounds.

Lemieux vs. Saunders

Lemieux made himself available as Miguel Cotto’s final opponent, which would take place on December 2, 2017 on HBO at Madison Square Garden. According to a source, regardless of who Cotto fought, Lemieux would still appear on the card. After weeks of going back and forth with WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders (25-0, 12 KOs) on Twitter, on October 10, the WBO ordered them to meet in a mandatory fight with both camps having 30 days to negotiate a fight, which would likely take place early in 2018. On October 16, Lemieux’s manager Camille Estephan stated the negotiations were going well for the fight and could possibly take place at the Bell Centre in Canada on December 16, 2017. He also stated that HBO were interested in showcasing the fight. On October 17, WBO confirmed the fight had been signed to take place at the new Place Bell in Laval, Quebec. Lemieux failed in his attempt to regain a world title after losing to Saunders via unanimous decision. The judges scored the fight 120-108, 117-111, 118-110. Both HBO and ESPN scored it a clear 120-108 for Saunders. Saunders picked Lemieux off with shots as he would plod forward trying to connect with his big power shots. The difference in hand speed and skills were vast. Saunders used his movement and jab effectively. Lemieux was never able to catch up to Saunders to land his big power shots. In the post-fight, Lemieux said, “I wasn’t at my best. Hats off to Billy Joe, but as of the second round, my left hand, I couldn’t use it the way I wanted to. And he was on the run, so I had a little bit of difficulties throwing my shots. So I gotta say it wasn’t my best night.” CompuBox showed that Saunders landed 165 of 430 punches (38%) and Lemieux landed 67 of his 356 thrown (19%). Saunders earned a minimum $1 million purse while Lemieux took home a $500,000 guaranteed purse. The fight averaged 716,000 viewers, peaking at 775,000 viewers.

A few days after the fight, Camille Estephan confirmed that Lemieux would be staying a middleweight, however he would not be expected to fight until after April 2018 since he needed to work towards shoulder rehab.

So that was a brief snapshot of David Lemieux’ career and his greatest hits. If reading about his in-ring exploits have got you excited, we will leave you with this video of the 10 best knockouts by David Lemieux: