By Keith Idec

David Lemieux wants to fight Canelo Alvarez as soon as possible.

If the former IBF middleweight champion gets what he wants, it’ll be him, not Gennady Golovkin, standing across from Alvarez on September 16. Lemieux obviously has been placed in the co-featured fight on the Alvarez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. pay-per-view undercard May 6 to generate more interest in Alvarez-Lemieux, just in case Alvarez and Golovkin don’t come to an agreement to give boxing fans the fight they’ve wanted to see for more than a year.

Montreal’s Lemieux (37-3, 33 KOs) is scheduled to meet Mexico’s Marcos Reyes (35-4, 26 KOs) in a 10-round fight that’ll be contested at a contracted catch weight of 163 pounds at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Lemieux was able to return to training camp soon after his March 11 fight against Curtis Stevens because he knocked out Stevens in spectacular fashion in just the third round.

The powerful French-Canadian contender hopes to produce a comparable victory over Reyes, who was stopped in the seventh round by a much lesser puncher, Elvin Ayala (29-8-1, 13 KOs), on November 3 in Dallas.

“Well, after what I do May 6th, I’m gonna put myself in a position where everybody’s gonna wanna see Canelo-Lemieux,” Lemieux said during a conference call Tuesday. “I’m not asking for the position. I’m gonna put myself in the position. So what I do with Marco Reyes will put me where I wanna be, to be fighting against Canelo. But first I’ll take care of Reyes, who’s a good fighter.”

Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez reiterated later on the conference call that his company’s intention is to make an Alvarez-Golovkin fight for September 16.

He acknowledged, however, that he and his boss, Oscar De La Hoya, consider Alvarez-Lemieux an attractive alternative if Alvarez-Golovkin negotiations don’t progress to the point they strike a deal. Gomez also reminded reporters that they realize the bigger, stronger Chavez (50-2-1, 32 KOs, 1 NC) is not an easy opponent for Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs).

“Well obviously, whenever you have an exciting fighter like David, he’s good for any fight,” Gomez said. “He’s got an exciting style and his knockouts are incredible. So it’s something that we’ve talked about. It’s something that I know David wants. It’s something that Canelo is interested in as well. But they have very tough fights. The Chavez Jr. fight for Canelo is not a walkover. It’s gonna be a tough fight. He’s moving up in weight and fighting a tough guy, possibly a light heavyweight. And then David has a tough fight, too.

“So there’s a possibility [for Alvarez-Lemieux]. I know immediately – next – Canelo wants to fight Golovkin. He’s made that very clear to everybody. Canelo said it, we’ve said it and Golovkin says that he wants that fight. We’re continuing to negotiate for that fight. But if, for whatever reason, that fight doesn’t happen, yeah, David would be in line.”

Gomez added that interest in an Alvarez-Lemieux match intensified after Lemieux’s left hook knocked Stevens unconscious in an HBO “Boxing After Dark” main event last month in Verona, New York.

“We got so many calls after his knockout – we got calls, we got emails, you know, social media, everyone wanting to see David fight Canelo,” Gomez said. “It was incredible. But that’s what David’s all about. When he has those highlight knockouts, it gets people excited.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.