This Saturday night HBO will be offering their second to last fight card of the year. In the main event, Canadian David Lemieux takes on Gabriel Rosado in the twelve round middleweight main event while semi-main Thomas Dulorme defends his NABF light welterweight title against Henry “Hank” Lundy. Solid fights but is this really good enough to be featured on the biggest platform in the sport?
The event will take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and is presented by Golden Boy Promotions. That in itself is a note worth mentioning since not too Golden Boy Promotions were publicly banned from the network. Not too long ago Golden Boy did make their first foray back when they featured Bernard Hopkins against Sergey Kovalev but that was a co-promotion. This is an entirely Golden Boy show. With that said, the boxing public deserved a much better fight other than Lemieux-Rosado which would be better suited for a Friday Night ESPN card.
Lemieux has not performed since May of this year when he stopped Fernando Guerrero in three for the vacant NABF middleweight title. He is not the problem. Obviously the twenty-five year old Canadian has a lot of potential especially the way that he draws in Montreal. The problem is the opponent. Gabriel Rosado. Yes, he is a warrior. Yes, he fights to the finish every time he gets in the ring. Yes, he will bleed and make it an exciting fight but is he the best guy for the job?
Fight fans need to look past the fight and see what HBO really wants out of the fight. HBO has really invested in one Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. The nearly undisputed middleweight champion is one of the fighters that has performed the most in the last couple of years on the cable network. The thing is that when you are as good Golovkin, you start running out of opponents and/or scaring off potential ones. Golovkin has wreaked havoc in the division and HBO is very conscious that “GGG” might find himself soon without a viable dance partner before he even becomes a PPV star.
Enter stage left David Lemieux.
First Lemieux not only needs to become somewhat of a recognizable name but also needs to seem competitive against Golovkin. That is where Rosado makes sense. Rosado is a great fighter but by his record, he is somewhat limited. With eight losses to the likes of Golovkin himself, Jermell Charlo, Peter Quillin, Alfredo Angulo and the aforementioned Fernando Guerrero among others, if Lemieux is what he is supposed to be, he should beat Rosado. The question is how easily?
If he struggles with him then the logical consensus would be that Lemieux would be no match for Golovkin but he stops Rosado in less than seven rounds, what it took Golovkin to do it, then Lemieux would begin to make sense. With the fact that Golovkin is willing be a real world champion, having shown his wares in Los Angeles, Monte Carlo and New York among other locations, it wouldn’t be a surprise Golovkin would be willing to get his passport stamped.
