Former IBF middleweight titleholder David Lemieux was victorious Saturday night, winning a lopsided 10-round decision over Cristian Fabian Rios at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Lemieux improves to 36-3 (32 knockouts), while Rios falls to 21-8-3 (6 KOs).

It was a stay-busy fight for Lemieux, fighting for the first time in his hometown of Montreal in 16 months. Both he and Rios tipped the scale at 163 ¾ pounds at Friday’s weigh-in.

Lemieux was in control of the action from the opening bell as the southpaw Rios backed up against the ropes. Lemieux seemed to stun Rios with a right hand to the head toward the end of the second round but was unable to follow up with anything of substance.

Rios, who resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was able to move laterally around the ring and, at times, distanced himself from Lemieux, drawing boos from the partisan crowd but Lemieux was content to get rounds in against his awkward opponent.

All three judges at ringside scored the bout in favor of Lemieux, 100-90 twice and 99-91. It was Lemieux’s second straight win since his one-sided knockout loss to unified middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin in October of last year.

Lemieux is on the short list of opponents who could possibly face RING middleweight champion/WBO junior middleweight titlist Canelo Alvarez in the first quarter of 2017.

“With this win, David Lemieux has once again demonstrated himself to be a dynamic and resilient fighter,” said Oscar De La Hoya, chairman and CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. “This additional victory will open new doors for Lemieux and we can’t wait to see what the next chapter in his boxing career will bring.”

Also on the Eye of the Tiger Management card, junior middleweight Steven Butler (18-0-1, 15 KOs) remained unbeaten, stopping Janks Trotter (10-4-1, 10 KOs) at 2:41 of the opening frame.

Unbeaten super middleweight D’Mitrius Ballard (15-0, 11 KOs), who is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, stopped Gergo Horvath (9-2-1, 5 KOs) at 1:20 of the second round.

Gatekeepers pulled off a pair of upsets on the card. Junior middleweight Silverio Ortiz (35-18, 17 KOs) stopped Mian Hussein (16-1, 6 KOs) after the third round.

Junior welterweight Ricky Sismundo (31-9-3, 13 KOs), who is originally from the Philippines and now resides in Japan, won a 10 round unanimous decision over Ghislain Maduma (18-3, 11 KOs).

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper, BoxingScene.com and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing.

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