By Ian S Palmer
Veteran middleweight Gabriel Rosado of Philadelphia will battle it out with David Lemieux of Canada at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York this Saturday, December 6th in a scheduled 12-round bout. The fight can be seen live on HBO in North America. This will be a tough test for Lemieux since Rosado represents a step up in class for the young Canadian. The last time he faced somebody of Rosado’s skill level he was stopped in seven rounds by Mexico’s Marco Antonio Rubio.
The 25-year-old David Lemieux climbs the ring steps with an impressive record of 32-2 along with 30 big Kos while the durable Rosado is 21-8 and has 13 Kos to his name. The 28-year-old Rosado is just shy of 6-feet and has a two-inch height advantage over his opponent along with a 1.5-inch edge in reach. Rosado also has a big edge in experience as he’s fought 201 rounds as a pro while the Montreal fighter Lemieux has 98 rounds under his belt.
Rosado may be the physically bigger boxer here, but he’s fought most of his bouts at the lower weight level of junior middleweight. The first thing you may notice about Lemieux’s record is his 88 per cent knockout ratio, but other than Rubio he hasn’t really faced any upper-level fighters. Rosado on the other hand has taken on the likes of world middleweight champions Peter Quillin and Gennady Golovkin. Quillin managed to stop him in the 10th round on cuts while Golovkin halted him in seven. He also dropped a split-decision against J’Leon Love. However, that bout was changed to a no-contest after Love failed a drug test.
Rosado has also been beaten by Alfredo Angulo by second-round TKO, by Derek Ennis by 10-round majority decision, by Fernando Guerrero by eight-round unanimous decision, by Joshua Onyango by eight-round unanimous decision, and by Chris Gray by a six-round unanimous decision. Rosado’s currently lost three fights in a row, but he’s been competitive in all of them except his last encounter which was a 12-round unanimous decision loss against Jermell Charlo in January.
Rosado’s also beaten some good boxers such as Sechew Powell, Jesus Soto-Karass, Saul Roman, and Kassim Ouma. However, he has to earn a victory here against Lemieux to get his career back on the right track. He’ll definitely need to stay away from Lemieux’s power though and also has to earn some respect from his opponent with his own power shots.
Lemieux has also been beaten by a majority-decision to Joachim Alcine in 2011 and he’s another boxer who seems to wilt when he steps up in class. He looked pretty good in May when he knocked out Fernando Guerrero in the third round in Quebec, and needs to build on that performance. Lemieux turned pro in 2007, but other than Rubio, Alcine and Guerrero it’s hard to find another recognizable name on his boxing resume other than perhaps Jason Naugler and Hector Camacho Jr, who he stopped in one round in 2010.
Lemieux has power in both hands, but even though Rosado’s been stopped three times, all of his KO losses were against some of the world’s best. Lemieux also has the killer instinct and will be all over Rosado if he senses he has him in trouble. It’s obvious that one of the keys in this fight is going to be Rosado’s chin. But Lemieux’s is also a bit questionable too and Rubio took advantage of it three years ago.
There’s one more thing Rosado has to worry about in this fight and that’s his susceptibility to cuts. He tends to bleed over his eyes and his fight against Quillin was stopped because of it. This means he may want to try and get Lemieux out of there early if he senses the opportunity to. He shouldn’t have to look too far for his opponent as Lemieux will likely take the fight right to Rosado as he hunts for his own stoppage win. Lemieux needs to land his shots from various angles and then get out of Rosado’s range. Rosado’s best bet is to establish his jab and keep Lemieux at a safe distance.
Prediction
This is a tough test for both boxers and it should be entertaining due to their respective styles. If Rosado’s chin and skin can hold out then Lemieux could get frustrated and run out of ideas. Rosado’s been in against some tough customers over the years and he’s been in a lot of wars for a 28-year-old. However, if he’s at his very best he should be able to withstand Lemieux’s power shots and do enough to take a close decision or earn a late stoppage.
