David Lemieux will officially make his move up to super middleweight on May 4 in the co-main event of Canelo Alvarez's middleweight title unification against Daniel Jacobs.
Lemieux will face contender John Ryder for the interim WBA super middleweight title on May 4. The fight, which will be streamed on DAZN, will take place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
This will be 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.
But 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.
Ryder, ranked No. 1 by the WBA at super middleweight, has won his last three fights since suffering a split decision against Fielding for the British title in 2017. Ryder has not fought since stopping then-unbeaten fighter Andrey Sirotkin in the seventh round last October.
Even though this fight is for the interim title, the WBA already has two other champions at super middleweight with Alvarez holding the "Regular" belt while Callum Smith is the organization's "Super" champion.
The winner of the fight could potentially fight either Alvarez or Smith down the road, given that both men are promoted by Golden Boy Promotions and Matchroom Boxing, respectively, both companies with broadcast deals with DAZN.
