By Tim Fletcher: Abel Sanchez, the trainer for IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) thinks that his important match against David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KO) this Saturday night will come down to Golovkin’s boxing IQ, which he feels is a lot higher than the 26-year-old Lemieux.

Sanchez respects Lemieux’s punching power, but he doesn’t rate him high as far as his ring intelligence goes. Sanchez sees the Canadian Lemieux as little more than a George Foreman type banger, a fighter who goes out there and tries to wear down his opponents with his looping shots to the head and body.

Sanchez notes that Lemieux’s punches are easy to see and to predict because he doesn’t have much hand speed, and he telegraphs everything he throws by his habit of planting his feet and winding up with everything he has for each shot he throws. Sanchez thinks that Golovkin will be able to take advantage of this in the fight.

“They both have power and speed and great knockout records but the IQ, the boxing IQ will be the difference, because Gennady thinks that it’s a different class,” Sanchez said. “As far as that part of it goes, and he will be able to get to David, because he will figure him out, but David can punch so it’s not like it’s going to be an easy fight. Both of them have punching power, but Gennady’s IQ is higher in the sense of boxing wise,” said Sanchez.

Lemieux will probably never be the type of fighter that is known for being a great boxing brain type of fighter. He’s crude in what he does, and he doesn’t disguise anything in the ring. What you see is what you get with Lemieux. He lower his head like a bull and just comes storming in looking to throw his shots as hard as he can.

If you can his shots, you have a very good chance of beating him. There have only been five opponents that Lemieux has faced during his career that has been able to take his punching power, and two of those fighters beat him in Marco Antonio Rubio and Joachim Alcine.

What that tells you is that if Golovkin can handle Lemieux’s punching power on Saturday night in their fight at Madison Square Garden in New York, then he’ll have an excellent chance of beating him. Lemieux lives and dies by his ability to KO his opponents.

“This fight is very dangerous for us,” Golovkin said. “He [Lemieux] is the biggest step for me. I respect old school. Just fight, not box. I like fight, not game. I promise an amazing event. He now has experience with Rubio fight,” Golovkin said about Lemieux. “He’s a little like a star now. He feels like a star. His style is interesting for me.”

One gets the sense that Golovkin resents Lemieux for him acting like he’s the A-side star in their fight. When Golovkin says that Lemieux thinks that he’s the star, and you can tell that Golovkin doesn’t care for that, and he wants to put Lemieux in his place come Saturday night.

During Max Kellerman’s Face off with Golovkin and Lemieux last Saturday night, Golovkin looked like he wanted to tear into Lemieux when he was talking about how he sees himself as the better fighter.