#3 WBC David Lemieux (36-3, 32 KOs) weighed in at 159 pounds on Friday for his 12 round middleweight fight against #2 WBC Curtis Stevens (29-5, 21 KOs) for their fight this Saturday night at the Events Center at Turning Stone Resort & Casino. Stevens weighed in at 158.25 pounds. HBO Boxing After Dark [BAD] will be televising the Lemieiux-Stevens fight on their network.
Lemieux looked pretty good in making the weight this time. He’s looked really thin and drawn the last time he made the 160 lb. limit for his fight against Glen Tapia last year in May. It’s good news that Lemieux was a lot healthier looking for this fight. In Lemieux’s last match, he weighed in at 163 ¾ lbs. for his fight against Cristian Fabian Rios last October.
Lemieux has a good chance of winning the fight against Stevens if he can get through the first four rounds. Stevens is dangerous early in his fights, and he fades quickly after that.
The winner of the Lemieux-Stevens fight will be in position to fight for a world title soon against the winner of the Gennady Golovkin vs. Daniel Jacobs. It would be nice if the Lemieux-Stevens winner faces another top fighter before they get a crack at Golovkin, not much time has gone by since they challenged him for his titles and lost badly.
35-year-old former IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (25-1, 17 KOs) weighed in at 131 pounds for his 10-round fight against Nicaraguan journeyman Rene Alvarado (24-7, 16 KOs). For his part, Alvarado weighed in at 130 ¼ pounds.
Gamboa has done very little with his boxing career since his 9th round TKO defeat to Terence Crawford in 2014. Gamboa has fought only 2 times since then in beating Joel Montes de Oca in November 2014, and Hylon Williams Jr. in December 2015. Gamboa has been out of the ring for the past 15 months. That’s disappointing because Gamboa looked good in beating Williams Jr. in 2015. To see him sitting on the shelf for close to a year and a half, it doesn’t make sense. Gamboa isn’t getting the most he can out of his boxing career.
Alvarado has lost 6 out of his last 9 fights since 2014. He’s lost 2 out of his last 3 fights. Gamboa should be able to take care of Alvarado without any problems on Saturday night unless he’s no longer got anything left in the tank.
Other weights on the card:
Yves Ulysee, Jr. 139.75 vs. Zachary Ochoa 139.5
(vacant NABF Junior Super Lightweight Title)
Diego De La Hoya 123 vs. Roberto Pucheta 123.75
D’Mitrius Ballard 168 vs. Zoltan Sera 167.5
Todd Unthank May 174 vs. Quinton Rankin 173.75
Damon Allen 135 vs. Adam Mate135.5
Alex Rincon 154.75 vs. Shaun Lee Henson 154.75