Lemieux will fight Hassan Ndam for the IBF vacant belt

After Felix Sturm and Billy Joe Saunders both declined to fight Ndam for the vacant IBF belt, David Lemieux announced earlier today that he’s gonna take the fight.

Lemieux (33-2, 31 KO) won his last 8 fights after losing twice in 2011 Joachim to Alcine and Marco Antonio Rubio. Ndam Njikam (31-1, 18 KO) became the International Boxing ederation number 1 contender when he beat Curtis Stevens last October. His only defeat was an unanimous decision against Peter Quillin, after he went down 6 times.

Camille Estephan, Eye Of The Tigre Promotion president told RDS (French Canadian sports media) that he was trying to get Lemieux to fight either Canelo Alvarez, Miguel Cotto or Gennady Golovkin. Since he couldn’t make any of these fight happen for the moment, the opportunity to fight for the IBF vacant belt was too good to pass.

“We took the time to analyzed the IBF offer properly and decided to accept, said Estephan. Ndam Njikam is dangerous, he was dominant against Curtis Stevens, we’re not gonna take him lightly. It’s not the big name we were hoping for but if we were ready to fight the like of GGG or Cotto, we definitely are ready for Ndam Njikam”.

The fight should take place in may and is going to be televised on HBO. Another great motivation for Estephan is that the fight could take place in Montreal.

“HBO are open to it, said Estephan. We hope we can get the Centre Bell, but the Canadians might be in the playoffs at that time. We wish the Habs to do well but that could be a problem.”

This fight would do really well in Montreal or Quebec City with David Lemieux being very popular in “the belle province”. Ndam also speak french, which could also help to promote the fight.