Lemieux looking to capture IBF title against N’Dam on 6/20

By Boxing News - 06/08/2015 - Comments

lemieux1By Jim Dower: After eight years as a pro, #4 IBF David Lemieux (33-2, 31 KOs) is in an excellent position to capture the vacant IBF middleweight title in his June 20th battle against #1 IBF Hassan N’Dam (31-1, 18 KOs) at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.

Lemieux and N’Dam will be fighting for Jermain Taylor’s IBF title that was recently stripped from him because of his legal problems. The Lemieux-N’Dam fight will be televised on Fox Sports 2, and will be simulcast on Fox Deportes.

It’s a good deal for boxing fans to see a bout as competitive as this would shapes up to be without having to watch it on an expensive premium channel. The Lemieux vs. N’Dam fight will be pay-per-view in Quebec, where Lemieux is a big name.

The 31-year-old N’Dam is going to have a tough time dealing with the punching power of Lemieux. This is a tougher match-up for the France-based N’Dam than the guy that he was originally going to be facing in Jermain Taylor. Lemieux is a much more dangerous slugger than Taylor, and N’Dam has already shown in the past that he has problems with guys that can punch.

Peter Quillin repeatedly dropped N’Dam in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision three years ago in 2012. N’Dam was knocked down six times in that fight. To his credit, he was able to get back to his feet and continue fighting each time. But things likely would have been over for N’Dam had he been in with a good finisher like Lemieux.

For some reason, Quillin failed to go after N’Dam each time he knocked him down. He was hurting N’Dam and putting him on the canvas, but then he would back off and let him survive each time. Lemieux is the opposite type of fighter. When he gets a guy hurt, he works hard to finish them off in a hurry.

N’Dam has won his last four fights since his loss to Quillin. In his last fight, N’Dam defeated the 5’7” contender Curtis Stevens by a 12 round unanimous decision last October. That was by far the best opponent that N’Dam has faced since 2012.

It’s kind of surprising that N’Dam waited three years to fight a halfway decent contender, but you can’t blame N’Dam for wanting to take it slow after the way that Quillin beat him.

“The broadcast on Fox Sports will allow American audiences the chance to see a great fight featuring two of the most exciting stars in boxing,” Lemieux’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya said to ESPN.com. “This matchup will deliver action-packed intensity as both Lemieux and N’Dam are hungry to move their careers forward and claim the title.”

This definitely will be a good fight. Lemieux will just need to make sure he can catch-up to N’Dam for him to have a chance of winning the fight. N’Dam is a very difficult guy to hit when he’s moving around the ring, and he’s going to be looking to elude Lemieux at all costs. N’Dam doesn’t have the type of game for him to stand and trade with a slugger like Lemieux in a toe-to-toe battle.

Also on the card are the following fights:

Dierry Jean vs. Jerry Belmontes
Schiller Hyppolite vs. Kevin Thomas Cojean
Mian Hussain vs. Ivan Pereyra
Ghislain Maduma vs. Michele Focosi
Steven Butler vs. Jaime Herrera



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