The picture at middleweight is largely dominated by four-weight world champion Miguel Cotto and long time WBA/IBO champion Gennady Golovkin. The third man in the division has to be seen as Andy Lee after his thrilling KO of previously undefeated Matt Korobov to win the vacant WBO share of the title. Therefore the IBF title, even if it was held by someone, wouldn’t hold much weight in the middleweight picture right now as that individual would be the fourth place champion on the list, and until a unification takes place it is not likely that they would have the opportunity to move up.
We have already seen Jermain Taylor stripped and both Felix Sturm and Billy Joe Saunders turn down offers to fight for the title so at this point the organisation must be desperate to get any half decent middleweight to represent them. But who could that be? Curtis Stevens and Daniel Geale have both had recent losses and Sam Soliman was the one who lost the title to Taylor in the first place.
This leaves one obvious choice and one fallback option. The best option they have would be David Lemieux. Lemieux has been making a name for himself recently with a string of impressive performances, most recently a TKO over tough Gabe Rosado. A bout between Lemieux who has 31 knockouts from his 33 wins and the once beaten Hassan N’Dam would reveal a top operator at Middleweight, but would they survive against someone like Golovkin if thrown in with him? I am sue they would be good fights.
The only other option the IBF would have is someone like Sergio Mora or Eamonn O’Kane and whilst these are good fighters and both on win streaks, you can understand why they are not on the top of anyone’s lists right now with so much talent around. Either way this fight needs to be set up as soon as possible, if the IBF keeps dishing out offers they have to eventually find someone willing to fight N’Dam for their world title honor.
