Lemieux upper cut gives Canadian third-round KO of Guerrero

MONTREAL – Middleweight David Lemieux took a step toward title contention with an impressive third-round knockout of Roberto Guerrero at Bell Centre on Saturday night.

Lemieux (32-2) knocked down Guerrero (26-3) in the first and second rounds. After Guerrero took a voluntary knee in the third to have his bleeding right eye cleared, Lemieux attacked and knocked him out with a right uppercut.

It was the 25-year-old Montreal fighter’s seventh win in a row since a pair of losses in 2011 derailed his title bout hopes. And it was the fifth time in five fights the crowd-pleasing knockout artist won inside three rounds.

The 27-year-old Guerrero, a Dominican Republic native living in Salisbury, Md., was in his second fight since losing a bid for the World Boxing Organization belt last year to Peter Quinlan.

The bout was on the undercard of Montreal light heavyweight Adonis Stevenson’s third defence of his WBC title against Andrej Fonfana of Poland.

A light-middleweight bout between top-10 contenders saw Jermell Charlo (24-0) of Houston dominate Charlie Belamy Ohta (24-2-1) of Japan in a 12-rounder.

The five-foot-11 Charlo, who had a five-inch height advantage, was knocked down by a left-right combination early in the third and was deducted a point in the ninth for a second low blow, but still earned scores of 115-111, 118-109 and 118-109 from the judges.

Eleider Alvarez (15-0), one of promoter Yvon Michel’s top prospects, must have thought it strange to be put in the first fight on the card, but he pulled out a workmanlike unanimous 10-round decision over Alexander Johnson (15-2).

Alvarez was a knockout artist early in his career, but since he has been given a better class of opponents, he has gone the distance in three straight fights. A knockdown in the third against the left-handed Johnson gave him 97-92 scores on three judges cards for the win.

Welterweight Junior Ulysse (2-0) of Montreal was impressive in his second pro bout, putting Argentina’s Carlos Alberto Olivera (6-7) down twice before their scheduled four-rounder was stopped at 1:38 of the first.

Philadelphia prospect Julian (J Rock) Williams (16-0-1) battered Michael Medina of Los Angeles through seven rounds before flooring him with a right in the eighth of their super-middleweight bout.