Lemieux to Golovkin: “There will be blood” on October 17th

By Boxing News - 08/18/2015 - Comments

Image: Lemieux to Golovkin: "There will be blood" on October 17th(Photo Credit: Rich Kane – Hoganphotos/K2 Promotions & Golden Boy Promotions) By Allan Fox: IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KOs) and IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) met today in their kickoff press conference for their October 17th unification fight on HBO pay-per-view from Madison Square Garden in New York.

We learned that the price of the Golovkin-Lemieux fight will be going for $49.95, which is a steal compared to the $100 boxing fans had to pay on pay-per-view for the disappointing “Fight of the Century” between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The cost of the Golovkin-Lemieux fight is reasonable in comparison.

What immediately jumped out at me in losing at Golokvin and Lemieux, besides the height difference, was how Lemieux was overweight. He clearly had a stomach on him. There’s still two months to go before the fight, but it doesn’t look good that the 26-year-old Lemieux is looking so flabby right now. He looks to be at least 20 pounds overweight, possibly a little more than that.

”I’m not here to be his friend. I’m here to be his opponent. On the 17th we’re going to fight. There will be blood,” Lemieux said during the press conference.

Lemieux looked considerably shorter than Golovkin when the two of them were standing side by side on the stage. Golokvin, 5’10 ½”, looks considerably taller than the 5’9’’ Lemieux. What also was noticeable was when the two fighters made a fist and stuck their arms out towards the audience. Golovkin’s fist was far out in front of Lemieux’s fist due to his longer reach, and you can bet that Golovkin will be using his reach to nail Lemieux from the outside all night long, or at least as long as the fight lasts.

“This is amazing history for everybody. I promise an amazing show,” Golovkin said.

Golovkin went on to say that he’s kind of nervous to be facing a fighter like Lemieux. It’s a big fight or Golovkin, and he doesn’t want to lose and mess things up right now. Lemieux has a lot of punching power in his left hand, and he could easily score a knockout over Golovkin if he can land that shot enough times.

Lemieux has the kind of power in his left hand where it might only take one big shot for him to score a knockout. But it’s difficult to imagine Golovkin going down for the 10 count from a single shot. Lemieux is probably going to need to land a lot of shots for him to get a stoppage win over Golovkin, and that’s the tricky part for Lemieux. For him to connect with a ton of shots against Golovkin, he’s going to need to get close enough to connect. By getting near Golovkin, Lemieux is going to be putting his chin on the line quite frequently.

There are already over 15,000 tickets that have been sold for the fight, according to Joel Fisher of Madison Square Garden (MSG). This suggests that the fight will be a sellout well before the fight takes place on October 17th, as the MSG venue only holds a little over 21,000 people. That means there’s roughly only 6,000 tickets left with around two months to go before the fight. Needless to say, that’s very impressive. Miguel Cotto sold out Madison Square Garden in his rematch against Antonio Margarito in 2011, but the tickets for that fight didn’t sell like the Golovkin-Lemieux tickets have been selling lately.

Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler says there isn’t a rematch clause in the contract for the fight. I don’t see any point in there being a rematch clause because the winner of the Golovkin-Lemieux fight is going to want to take their career forward to try and face the winner of the November 21st fight between WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. There’s a lot of money for Golovkin or Lemieux in facing the Cotto-Canelo winner, and that’s definitely the direction that they need to go in rather than facing each other again.

Lemieux is probably not going to be able to out-box Golovkin in this fight. We saw in Lemieux’s last fight against Hassan N’Dam that he can be out-boxed when he’s not scoring knockdowns. Golovkin has good boxing skills too, and he’ll focus on winning rounds if he can’t get Lemieux out of there. Golovkin wants a stoppage win, but if he realizes that it’s too dangerous for him to stay in the pocket against the Canadian fighter, then you can expect Golovkin to focus on winning the fight by a decision.

Golovkin needs a victory over Lemieux so that he can move forward to fight the winner of the Cotto-Canelo fight in early 2016.

Lemieux will need to put pressure on Golovkin at all times because if he stays on the outside, he’s going to get picked apart by Golovkin. Abel Sanchez, the trainer for Golovkin, said recently that Golovkin is going to be jabbing Lemieux in the first two rounds of the fight. In the 3rd, he plans on having Golovkin start pot shotting Lemieux from the outside to set up his bigger shots. In the 4th, Golovkin will go for the kill and look to score a knockout of Lemieux. Sanchez doesn’t think that Lemieux will be able to make it beyond the 4th round because Golovkin will be fighting with a lot of intensity and throwing with maximum power.

Golovkin said he carried his last opponent Willie Monroe to the 6th round before knocking him out. Golovkin said he also carried Martin Murray to the 11th round earlier this year in February before stopping him too. However, Golovkin can’t afford to carry Lemieux for any number of rounds because he’s too dangerous to be left out there.

If Golovkin messes around with Lemieux on October 17th, he could wind up getting knocked out himself. That’s why it’s important that he goes for a knockout as soon as possible. I guess that’s why Sanchez is saying that he wants Golovkin to KO Lemieux by the 4th round. He obviously knows that he can’t let Lemieux stick around for too long in this fight.



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