:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/42319470/465087203.0.jpg)
According to a tweet from Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports, Oscar De La Hoya announced today that fringe top-ten middleweights Gabriel Rosado and David Lemieux are set to fight Saturday, December 6th.
Also, Oscar said Gabe Rosado-David Lemieux on HBO on Dec 6 at Barclays Center
— Kevin Iole (@KevinI) October 20, 2014
Rosado (21-8, 13 KO) might appear to be riding a skid, but he recently returned to his winning ways with a sensational knockout over Bryan Vera in Big Knockout Boxing, which does not appear on his professional record. In addition, Rosado might have won a few of his last several bouts were it not for a brutal cut (against Peter Quillin) and a terrible set of scorecards (against J'Leon Love). In other words, Rosado is an entertaining and skilled fighter who just couldn't seem to catch a break for a the last several years.
His opponent, Lemieux (32-2, 30 KO), is precisely the kind of opponent that has given Rosado problems in the past, namely, one who hits really, really hard. Lemieux is a predictable fighter, but an extremely dangerous one nonetheless. Of all the men who have expected his thunderous left hook in the past seven years, only Marco Antonio Rubio and Joachim Alcine have actually been able to stop it consistently enough to win, and Lemieux has gone 7-0 with six KOs since then.
Of course Lemieux is a long way down the totem pole from Rosado's other losses, which include such luminaries as the aforementioned Peter Quillin and boxing's most feared knockout artist, Gennady Golovkin. But will a win over Vera prove to be enough of a confidence-booster for Rosado to prevail, or will Lemieux open up the thin-skinned eyebrows that have so troubled Rosado in the past?
Needless to say, it's a compelling fight with lots of upside for both fighters. With a win, either man could break back into the middleweight top ten, which is badly in need of new blood.