By Tim Royner: In a total schooling from start to finish, WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs) put on a master-class performance on Saturday night in pounding the stuffing out of former IBF 160-pound champion David Lemieux (38-4, 33 KOs) in beating him by an absolutely one-sided 12 round unanimous decision at the Place Bell in Laval, Quebec, Canada.
This was a bitter pill for the 28-year-old Lemieux to take, as it was a pure clowning from Saunders for the entire 12 round fight. What made it even worse is the fight was in front of Lemieux’s own boxing fans in Canada. All they could do is watch, boo and try and sympathize with their beaten fighter.
The judges scored the fight 120-108, 117-111, 118-110. The only accurate score of the bunch was the 120-108 score for Saunders. Boxing News 24 had Saunders winning 120-108.
Saunders picked Lemieux off with shots all night long as he would plod forward trying to connect with his big power shots. The difference in hand speed and skills were vast. Saunders, with his amateur background, was too much for Lemieux.
The fight was so one-sided that you can argue that Lemieux’s trainer should have pulled the plug on the contest by the 7th. Lemieux’s face was badly swollen by that point, and his nose busted and bleeding. Lemieux was hitting nothing but air and getting taunted by Saunders.
“I would have never came here if I thought I was going to get beat,” said Saunders after the fight. “When I hurt David, I wanted to put it on him. Dominic Ingle told me, ‘Don’t. Take your time.’ Golovkin, fight me now. You’ll be punching fresh air,” said Saunders.
Lemieux said he hurt his left hand in the 2nd round, and the injury prevented him from being able to land his lefts. Lemieux was upset about Saunders’ constant movement, and he said he was unable to land his shots due to his running.
“I wasn’t at my best,” said Lemieux. “As of the 2nd round, I couldn’t use my left. He was on the run, so I was having problems landing my shots. I didn’t do what I wanted to do. I couldn’t use my left hand as I wanted to. He was running away from me all night. If this is the way you want to win, then congratulations,” said Lemieux.
Saunders wasn’t running. He was using movement, jabbing and boxing the way the late great Muhammad Ali did during the prime of his career. Lemieux was too slow. He looked a lot like Cletus Seldin in how he performed on the undercard. Lemieux looked thick around the middle and slow of foot. Lemieux was never able to catch up to Saunders to land his big power shots.
