David Lemieux vs Hassan N'dam set for June 20 in Montreal for vacant IBF belt

The IBF title that was stripped from Jermain Taylor earlier this year will be up for grabs at the Bell Centre on June 20, when power punching David Lemieux faces Hassan N'dam to fill the middleweight vacancy, it was announced on Friday. A press conference to make the fight officially official will be held this coming Wednesday.

Lemieux (33-2, 31 KO) signed with Golden Boy Promotions earlier this year, following an HBO win over Gabriel Rosadoin December, but that triggered a lawsuit from Groupe Yvon Michel in Quebec, who claimed to still have Lemieux under contract. Golden Boy won a purse bid for Lemieux-N'dam in April as the only bidder, offering the minimum accepted bid of $102,000, for a 50-50 purse split between the fighters.

It was then feared that N'dam (31-1, 18 KO) might back out of the fight given the low payday against a big puncher, especially after his promoter, King Sports Worldwide, had previously offered him $300,000 to secure the fight. Taking the fight for a $51,000 purse was certainly seen as a backwards step, Le Journal de Montreal reports that N'dam took the fight because he "got a substantial amount of money from a third party."

N'dam last fought on October 1, beating Curtis Stevens in California, which was an IBF eliminator.