By Steve Kim

There were plans for middleweight contender, David Lemieux, to fight on the Miguel Cotto undercard at New York's Madison Square Garden on December 2nd. But it turns out he might have bigger fish to fry now.

According to Eric Gomez, the President of Golden Boy Promotions (which handles Lemieux, alongside Eye of the Tiger Management):

"We just received a letter from the WBO and it's been ordered that he has to fight (Billy Joe) Saunders as the mandatory. I'm going to start having conversations with Frank Warren," Gomez told BoxingScene.com.

There had been talk of Lemieux also getting his own HBO date on December 16th. When asked if a Saunders-Lemieux fight could happen then, Gomez told BoxingScene on Monday afternoon:

"Yeah there's a possibility of doing it by December. It's all negotiations, I'm going to start talking to Frank Warren and see what he has in mind. Definitely it can happen in December."

The assumption is that HBO would be interested in this match-up.

"We would hope so, we would hope that HBO would support that fight," said Gomez. "They're in the Lemieux business. Lemieux's been fighting well the last couple of fights, so yeah, I would think so."

Saunders (25-0, 12 KO's) just recently defended his title by decisioning Willie Monroe Jr. on September 16th. It was Saunders' first bout since last December's tough decision win over Artur Akavov. Since defeating Andy Lee for the title in the fall of 2015, Saunders has only been able to make two defenses of his belt - due to injuries and other matters beyond his control, like mandatory challenger Avantadil Khurtsidze getting arrested on a RICO warrant.

While Lemieux (38-3, 33 KO's) has been far more active. He knocked out Curtis Stevens in three back in March and then went ten rounds with Marco Reyes in May.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.