Former middleweight world champion David Lemieux's time in the 160-pound division may soon be over.
After losing to WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders on HBO last year, Lemieux decided to regroup and had a fight on May 26 against Karim Achour. Lemieux came in overweight the day before the fight, meaning he had given up 20 percent of his purse and the chance to win the WBC International and WBC Francophone middleweight titles, which were going to be on the line.
The fight still went on as scheduled even though Lemieux weighed in at 162 pounds and Lemieux picked up the win by unanimous decision. Promoter Camille Estephan told the Montreal Gazette after Lemieux missed weight that the former champion will now campaign as a super middleweight in his next fight.
“We watched him suffer the last few days in the gym to make a weight that has become difficult for him to reach,” Estephan said. “Our fighters’ health is a priority and it is unthinkable that David be put in a situation like this again.”
This would not be the first time Lemieux missed weight as a middleweight. Lemieux weighed in 2.6 pounds over the contract weight for a 2016 fight against James de la Rosa. Lemieux previously held the IBF middleweight title when he defeated Hassan N'Dam in 2015. He would then lose the title to Gennady Golovkin on an HBO pay-per-view later that year as Golovkin stopped in eight rounds to unify the IBF, WBA and interim WBC titles.
