Last December at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, David Lemieux headlined on HBO for the first time, facing tough Philly scrapper Gabriel Rosado in a fight that was meant to showcase Lemieux, but did come with some danger, given Lemieux's past shortcomings against his better opponents.
Shaking the ghosts of his 2011 losses to Marco Antonio Rubio and Joachim Alcine, Lemieux battered Rosado pretty much from start to finish, overpowering and outboxing his opponent en route to an impressive 10th round stoppage, which included a third round knockdown, and ended with Rosado's face busted up yet again, nothing new to him over his career.
While Rosado may not be a true world-level fighter, he represented a step back up in competition for Lemieux, who patiently plied his trade following those defeats three years prior. Fernando Guerrero was a step back into the land of opponents with a pulse in May 2014, but Rosado was well-known as a tough out, someone who could take shots, find ways to hang in fights, and do some damage of his own. But Lemieux was just too much for him, and scored what was probably a career-best win at that time.