By Thomas Gerbasi

If there were dark days for David Lemieux after his October loss to Gennady Golovkin, he wasn’t about to admit to them or show any sign of weakness. He’s a fighter. Fighters fight, and sometimes they lose. It’s part of the game, and he had been down that road before.

So he did the only thing he knew after the loss of his IBF middleweight title. He went back to the gym and went looking for a fight.

“I didn’t stop training after the loss in the Golovkin fight,” Lemieux said. “I was back in the gym not too long after and we were supposed to have a fight against (James) De La Rosa.”

That March bout against De La Rosa didn’t happen, as Lemieux missed the contracted weight by 2.6 pounds, but he got an even better bout against Glen Tapia on the Canelo Alvarez vs. Amir Khan undercard this Saturday in Las Vegas. And he insists that weight won’t be an issue.

“I stayed focused and I kept training and now we’ve got a date May 7th,” he said. “I’m in superb shape right now, better than I was against De La Rosa, better than I was for a lot of guys. So I can’t wait to get back in there.”

Every fighter says that after a loss, but few sound as urgent about it as the 27-year-old from Montreal, who left the Golovkin bout with his third pro loss and without his championship belt, but also with a renewed belief that he belongs among the elite at 160 pounds.

“I love fighting the top fighters out there, and I consider myself one of the top fighters in there,” Lemieux said. “I didn’t become world champion by luck. I worked hard for what I have and I’d like to stay on top. And I’m a real guy. I like to fight the top fighters, and Golovkin was a top guy, so right away the challenge came and we took it, no problem. He’s a great fighter, he got me on that night, but I still have faith in my abilities and I still have faith that if I train hard and have a good plan, I beat a guy like that. Nothing’s easy in boxing. But with a good plan, good team and good skills, anything can be done.”

After the loss in his last fight and the weight debacle earlier this year, Lemieux believes everything is back in order for Saturday’s bout. And if there is a perfect matchup for the Canadian power hitter, it’s New Jersey’s Tapia, a no nonsense fighter who Lemieux won’t have to look for once the bell rings. But the former world champion doesn’t expect a Fight of the Year type battle, at least not after he lands one of his bombs.

“He (Tapia) is a tough fighter and I’m excited to see how he adapts to me because I know for sure that when I’m gonna hit him, it’s gonna be a whole different game in his mind,” Lemieux said. “But he’s a tough guy and I don’t underestimate him. He’s going to be dangerous and I’m going to make sure that I’m prepared.”

And with a win, he will stay in the big rooms he’s become accustomed to.

“The big stage only happened recently,” he laughs. “I used to fight in these little gyms at nine years old. So the big stage took a lot of work to get there. It took a lot of blood and sweat and I am where I am because I put myself in this position. There’s a lot of hard work behind this, but I do like it and I love fighting in the biggest arenas in front of the biggest crowds. It’s turned into something every fighter dreams of.”