By Dan Ambrose: IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KOs) isn’t worried about which of the two fighters he faces in looking at the Saul “Canelo Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto fight on November 21st. Lemieux likes his chances against either of them.
It’s still unknown right now if the winner of the Cotto-Canelo fight will opt to fight the Lemieux vs. Gennady Golovkin winner, but a lot of boxing fans believe that Canelo is confident enough to want to face the winner of that fight. Lemieux thinks that Canelo will come out on top in that fight, which could be a good thing because he’s expressed interest in wanting to fight Golovkin in the past.
With Cotto, it’s still hard to say for sure because he seems to be doing his own thing at this point in his career and appears to be immune to criticism about the opposition he’s facing. I can see him gladly vacating the WBC middleweight title if beats Canelo. Cotto would have a lot of cover in doing so because he would have a victory over Canelo, and only one fighter has done that thus far in Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“I have to get Golovkin out of the way first,” Lemieux said via Fighthub.com. “They’re [Cotto and Canelo] to my liking. I think Canelo’s going to take it.”
Lemieux would stand a better chance against Cotto than he would against Canelo. Cotto has been in too many wars, and he’s shown himself to be vulnerable early in his fights against the likes of Manny Pacquiao.
I don’t think Cotto would be able to take too many of Lemieux’s left hooks without breaking down and getting cut up. Cotto has a good left hook of his own, but it’s clearly not as good as Lemieux’s. He’s not as big as Lemieux, and he’s not as young.
It’s hard to disagree with what Lemieux is saying because Canelo does seem to have a lot of advantages in his favor in this fight. He’s younger, faster, bigger and stronger.
About the only things that Cotto has going for him is his experience and his trainer Freddie Roach. The experience might not mean anything because Cotto lost his biggest fights of his career. The only times he seemed to win his fights was when his opponent was old, smaller than him, or over-the-hill.
Cotto’s best wins of his career came against Zab Judah, Antonio Margarito, Sergio Martinez, Shane Mosley, Daniel Geale, Paulie Malignaggi, and Ricardo Mayorga. Margarito, Martinez, Geale, and Mosley were on the slide when Cotto beat them.
It’s hard to predict what Canelo will do. He’s looked poor when facing guys that have good boxing skills like Erislandy Lara, Austin Trout and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Canelo mostly does well when fighting guys that punch with him. Cotto isn’t likely to stand directly in front of Canelo on November 21st. Roach will have Cotto jabbing, moving and looking to land pot shots. It would be in Canelo’s best interest to put a lot of pressure on Cotto the same way that Margarito and Manny Pacquiao did in their wins over him.
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