https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UUptSjXPVA&feature=youtu.be

By Dan Ambrose: It’s well known that IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KOs) tends to gas out and lose power on his shots by the 6th or 7th rounds of his fights. We saw that in his defeats against Joachim Acline and Marco Antonio Rubio, as well as his recent win over Hassan N’Dam last June.

In each of those fights, the 26-year-old Lemieux faded badly by the 6th round. There hasn’t been much improvement in Lemieux’s conditioning since 2011, when he was beaten in back to back fights by Rubio and Alcine.

On October 17th, Lemieux is going to need to go after IBO/WBA Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) to try and get him out of there as fast as possible before he gassed out in their match-up on HBO pay-per-view from Madison Square Garden in New York.

In Lemieux’s last nine fights since his loss Alcine in 2011, five of his opponents have made it three rounds or less. The other 4 went 7 to 12 rounds against him. What this means is that Lemieux hasn’t had the opportunity to develop his stamina during the last four years, because he’s been too busy fighting over-matched opposition for the most part.

What we saw in Lemieux’s last fight against N’Dam is that his stamina hasn’t improved and that he’s still basically just a six round fighter at best. Lemieux has not improved in that area.

This means that Lemieux is going to have to have to lower his horns on 10/17, and go after Golovkin immediately at the opening bell and swing for the fences with every punch he throws. Above all, Lemieux cannot let Golovkin fight at a leisurely pace by dragging the fight out until the second half of the fight, because if he does that, then Lemieux is going to have no chance of winning the fight.

Lemieux needs to get Golovkin to fight his style of fight by punching with him, and hope that he makes a mistake by dropping his guard long enough for Lemieux to plaster one of his big shots to the jaw of Golovkin.

Lemieux cannot let Golovkin make it to the sixth round in this fight because if he makes it that far, then Lemieux’s chances of winning will go down the drain.

One way for Lemieux to win this fight is for him to try and lure Golovkin in by stand in the corner against the ropes and letting him have some success. If Golovkin feels that it’s too easy, he’ll possibly get sloppy and forget his defense long enough for Lemieux to nail him with a big shot. But if Lemieux doesn’t disguise his efforts at scoring a knockout, he’s going to wind up like Curtis Stevens did and get knocked out.

Stevens went after Golovkin from the opening bell of their fight in 2013, and he tagged Golovkin with some big shots that made him wary of getting too close to Stevens. Golovkin then stayed on the outside for the most part, picking Stevens off with single shots here and there. Eventually when he had Stevens properly beaten up, he then went after him in the 8th round to get the stoppage.