(Photo credit: Photo Credit: Eye of The Tiger Management) By Allan Fox: Canadian puncher David Lemieux (33-2, 31 KOs) isn’t underestimating his opponent Hassan N’Dam (31-1, 18 KOs) in their fight tonight on Fox Sports 2 from the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.
The 26-year-old Lemieux is taking N’Dam very seriously despite the fact that he lacks the big punching power that you see from other top middleweights in the division like Gennady Golovkin, Andy Lee, Peter Quillin, Tureano Johnson and Daniel Jacobs.
Lemieux knows that N’Dam is a highly skilled fighter with good boxing ability. He’s not going overlook him tonight in their fight for the vacant IBF middleweight title.
“I wouldn’t say I’m overconfident, I’m well aware of who I’m facing,” Lemieux said. “There’s no such thing as overconfidence, at least not in my way.”
Lemieux is going to need to fight his game, and not get caught up in a boxing match. N’Dam is going to be looking to keep the 5’9” Lemieux on the outside all night long to prevent him from getting his big power shots off.
Whether N’Dam will be successful at doing that is the big question. Lemieux is very good at putting pressure on his opponents, and N’Dam won’t be able to run for the full 12 rounds without getting caught up against the ropes from time to time.
This is a classic boxer vs. slugger type of fight, and it’s going to be really interesting to see who comes out on top. N’Dam has the faster hand speed, and he’s the more mobile of the two fighters. He’s also the taller guy by two inches over the 5’9” Lemieux, and that could play into the final outcome of this fight if Lemieux isn’t able to get near enough to N’Dam to hit him with his power shots.
N’Dam’s last opponent Curtis Stevens didn’t have the height at 5’7 to do anything against N’Dam. Stevens was frequently picked off by N’Dam when he would attempt to get in punching range, and eventually he was hurt badly late in the fight.
“There were certain things I wasn’t able to do that I can now. I had a certain way of fighting, there were certain things missing, and now I can say that I am a complete fighter,” Lemieux said.
Lemieux’s stamina has improved over where he was in 2011. That’s one area where Lemieux has shown a great deal of improvement. In the past, Lemieux was little more than a five round fighter. Once you got him past the 5th, he would gas out and not look as impressive. But now he’s able to pace himself a lot better and fight hard for well past the 6th. The thing is very few fighters get past the fifth round in order to test Lemieux’s stamina.
Of the guys that Lemeux has faced during his career, N’Dam has the style that could give him a lot of trouble if he’s not able to cut off the ring on him to force him into a fight. Lemieux isn’t a great boxer, and his lack of height makes him easy to hit. N’Dam has an excellent jab and he’ll no doubt be looking to tattoo Lemieux with it all night long tonight. Lemieux is going to need to take a lot of shots in order to land his own punches.
“My defense is my offence. Sometimes I take risks … for the fans,” Lemieux said.
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