Canelo vs Jacobs: David Lemieux injured, out of fight with John Ryder

Badlefthook.com

David Lemieux has suffered an injury to his right hand in training camp, and his scheduled move to super middleweight on May 4 against John Ryder has been canceled.

The fight was set to be the co-feature on the Canelo-Jacobs undercard, streaming live on DAZN, and a new co-feature will be announced soon.

“Training camp was going really great,” said Lemieux. “I felt in tremendous shape, the strongest I’d ever felt in my entire career. But I will be back soon. Hopefully, the fans will understand. I promise I will make it up to them once I’m healed.”

“I’m very disappointed since he was in the best shape of his life both in the gym and in the ring,” said Camille Estephan, President of Eye of the Tiger Management. “We will take the time to heal his hand and get right back in the chase for a world title.”

“It’s very unfortunate that David Lemieux’s return has been postponed,” said Eric Gomez, President of Golden Boy. “But this is boxing, and these things happen. We wish David a speedy recovery and look forward to his return, so he can make big waves at 168 pounds.”

A former middleweight titleholder, Lemieux (40-4, 34 KO) was expected by many to be the opponent for Canelo Alvarez on May 4, but the Canadian slugger had major issues trying to make weight in December for a fight on the Canelo-Rocky Fielding undercard.

Lemieux was hospitalized and had to cancel that fight, and staying at 160 was no longer an option for him, which opened to door for Daniel Jacobs to face Alvarez instead.

The move to 168 figured to be interesting, to see how much of his vaunted punching power he carried up to the new weight, and Ryder (27-4, 15 KO) was a solid first opponent.