David Lemieux Suffers Right Hand Injury, Withdraws From Canelo vs. Jacobs Co-Main Event

David Lemieux suffered a right hand injury that will keep him from fighting in Las Vegas on May 4.

The former middleweight champion suffered the injury and will no longer be able to fight John Ryder in the DAZN-streamed co-main event of Canelo Alvarez vs. Daniel Jacobs. The fight would have been for the newly-created interim WBA super middleweight title. 

This would have been the start of Lemieux’s first real run at 168 pounds after weight issues have plagued him throughout the last couple of years. Lemieux, a former IBF middleweight champion, was going to make the jump in weight last year after missing weight for a fight in Canada.

But Lemieux was offered the opportunity to fight in a WBA middleweight title eliminator against Gary O’Sullivan last September and Lemieux won the fight by first-round knockout. With the win, Lemieux was named the mandatory challenger to the WBA 160-pound title currently being held by Alvarez.

Lemieux was supposed to fight Tureano Johnson in the co-main of Alvarez’s WBA “Regular” super middleweight title win over Rocky Fielding last December and Lemieux faced weight issues once again. Lemieux did not arrive at the weigh-ins as he was suffering from dehydration as a result of his weight cut. Since then, Lemieux saw his position in the WBA middleweight rankings be gone and is now ranked No. 5 by the WBA at super middleweight.

Golden Boy Promotions announced on social media that a new co-main event is currently being worked on and will be revealed at a later date.