The main event of the triple-header night of boxing at Barclays on Saturday night offered the world a possible glimpse of what’s to come this summer. Montreal’s very own, middleweight pugilist David Lemieux (33-2, 31 KOs) 25, made his state side debut in the ring in Brooklyn, against Philadelphia’s Gabriel Rosado (21-9, 13 KOs) 28, in what turned out to be a 10-round knockout.
Opening round Lemieux came out swinging hard and easily dominating Rosado, who seemed to be in over his head. The roaring crowd of 6,532 were mostly all in favor of Rosado and it seemed that the morale boost helped as Rosado picked up his pace and started landing hits to contend against the body blows delivered by Lemieux.
The would be deciding factor in the 10-round bout would come in the 3rd round when Lemieux landed a big shot to Rosado’s eye which would go on to swell shut. Rosado’s renown tenacity in the ring was on true display as Rosado powered through, despite the massive loss of vision suffered and proved successful in weakening Lemieux as the fight progressed.
Rosado would go on to state, via ESPN:
“He’s a good fighter, man. It was difficult seeing when my eye puffed up,I saw three of him the whole fight. I was trying to fight and counter as best as I could with one eye. Just my luck…I felt like I was doing good when I could box, I had a good game plan. I wanted to make him miss and counter but I was a little handicapped with the eye. I give him credit. He’s a good fighter.”
Doctors had cleared Rosado to resume fighting in 8th and 9th rounds, but it was obvious Rosado had slowed down and the eye was bothering him. The ringside doctor ordered the fight to stop in 10th at the 1 minute 45 second mark, despite giving Rosado the go ahead twice previously, much to the chagrin of the Rosado swayed crowd.
Ultimately it was Lemieux’s fight all for the taking, by the time the stoppage was called he led 90-80, 89-81 and 88-82. After the victorious bout, the question of taking on Gennady Golovkin was addressed, which he replied:
“I’m ready to fight anyone at 160, Golovkin, (Miguel) Cotto, anyone at 160. I’m willing to fight everybody. I want to be the best,”
GGG is currently under contract with HBO, and if this was HBO’s attempt at trying to determine if Lemieux should be the next opponent in line, then I’d say Lemieux should get his bags packed for a trip back to the U.S in advance.
Undercard Recap:
The junior welterweight bout featured Thomas Dulorme (22-1, 14 KOs) of Puerto Rico winning in convincing fashion in a 10-round showdown by decision against ‘Hammerin’ Hank Lundy of Philadelphia (25-4-1, 12 KO).
Dulorme knocked Lundy down in the first round and significantly swayed the momentum in his favor, although Lundy managed to give back some. Ultimately judges scored this card 96-93, 97-92, and 93-96.
Hugo ‘the boss’ Centeno Jr remained solid at 22-0 (12KOs) after his 5th round KO of James De La Rosa (23-3, 13 KO). Centeno dropped De La Rosa in the opening round, and from there on never looked back.
This sums the match up
GIF courtesy Deadspin