Once-beaten middleweight prospect David Lemieux will face 35-year-old former WBA junior middleweight titleholder Joachim Alcine in a clash of Canadian middleweights on Dec. 10 at Bell Centre in Montreal.

The 22-year-old Lemiuex’s promoter, Yvon Michel, informed RingTV.com that the fight was in the works last Saturday night, but the deal became official a couple of days ago, according to a report by BoxingScene.com.

“We made an offer to promoter Lou DiBella for a fight against Joachim Alcine, and we will see what the answer will be for that,” Michel told RingTV.com last Saturday night. “Alcine is a former WBA super welterweight champion, so that should be a good fight.”

In addition, Lemieux (25-1, 24 KOs) has signed a contract with Eye of the Tiger Management, according to BoxingScene.com.

The 35-year-old Alcine (32-2-1, 19 KOs) is coming off a draw with Jose Medina in August, and, prior to that, was knocked out in the first round by Alfredo Angulo in July.

Alcine became WBA titleholder by winning a clash of unbeaten fighters by decision over Tarvis Simms in July of 2007, and defended that belt once before being dethroned via sixth-round knockout against Daniel Santos July of 2008.

In preparation for a comeback fight, spent some time in August training alongside Sergio Martinez in Oxnard, Calif., as Martinez began the early stages of preparation for his 11th-round knockout of previously unbeaten Darren Barker on Oct. 1.

Lemieux is trying to bounce back from April’s shocking seventh-round stoppage loss to hard-hitting Marco Antonio Rubio (51-5-1, 44 KOs). Rubio-Lemieux was a WBC eliminator match up that was contested before Lemieux’s partisan fans at the Bell Centre.

Lemieux had gone 5-0 in 2010, but the loss to Rubio ended his run of four straight stoppage wins.

Lemieux had often sparred with promotional stablemate Jean Pascal (26-2-1, 16 KOs), a former lightheavyweight beltholder.

In Canada, Lemieux’s popularity had reached the point where it began to rival that of 31-year-old countryman Lucian Bute (29-0, 26 KOs), the IBF super middleweight titleholder.

During his previous triumph at Bell Centre, Lemieux earned a second-round knockout over Purnell Gates in December of last year.

Stopped for the first time in his career, Gates had a 15-fight winning streak that had included 11 knockouts for a man whose record was 18-1 with 13 KOs coming in.

In victory over Rubio, Lemieux was to have been in line for a title shot opposite 25-year-old Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (43-0-1, 30 KOs), who dethroned Germany’s Sebastian Zbik (30-1, 10 KOs) as WBC beltholder in June.

Zbik had been elevated to WBC titleholder after Martinez (47-2-2, 26 KOs) was stripped and declared the organization’s “Champion Emeritus.”

Rubio has now scored five consecutive knockouts and eight overall among nine consecutive wins, having positioned himself for a shot at Chavez along with Martinez.

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]