By Dan Ambrose: IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KOs) is seen by a lot of fans of the sport to be the token sacrificial lamb for IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) to slaughter this Saturday night.
Fans don’t believe that Lemieux has much of a chance in this fight because of his two past defeats from 2011, and because of his youth and relative experience. The experience, amateur pedigree and the defensive skills are all in Golovkin’s favor in this fight.
Lemieux believes he’s going to hurt the 33-year-old Golovkin win he puts hands on him, and he wants him to come out of this fight saying that he’s not been hit as hard by any other fighter during his career.
Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez doesn’t rate Lemieux as the best puncher that Golovkin has faced. According to Sanchez, the hardest puncher that Golovkin has fought thus far is Curtis Stevens. Golovkin took some big shots from the 5’7” Stevens before stopping him in the 8th round. Most of Stevens’ success came in the early rounds before Golovkin figured him out.
Sanchez recently described Lemieux as a “thumper” in terms of his punching power in comparing him to George Foreman. There’s nothing wrong with being compared to Foreman, but it seems like it bothered Lemieux, who probably wants to be compared to a devastating one-punch knockout artist like Julian Jackson, when it’s obvious that Lemieux isn’t that kind of a puncher. Lemieux doesn’t end his fights with one punch like Jackson did. He’s more of the type that needs to wear his opponents down with big shots round after round.
“I’m not thinking about what Abel Sanchez is saying, but I can tell you that anybody I can hit, I’m going to hurt,” Lemieux said via the latimes.com. “I don’t need to say it. Look at my record. Golovkin has won 400 fights since the amateurs, but I’m going to make sure to be the one to make him say, ‘No one else has ever hit me like this in my entire career.”
That sounds like Lemieux is going to come into this fight swinging for the fences with every punch. That probably isn’t a smart thing to do against Golovkin because he’ll be looking to counter Lemieux each time he throws a shot and misses with it. Even if Lemieux lands something, he had better be prepared to get hit in return because Golovkin is very good at firing back shots immediately after he gets tagged.
“I’ll be very well prepared, even better than in the N’Dam fight. I’m going to surprise people with what I’m going to bring to the table,” Lemieux said.
Lemieux was as prepared as he could possibly be for his recent 12 round decision win over Hassan N’Dam last June. I doubt that Lemieux will be better prepared for this fight than he was for that one. If Lemieux tried to do more in this training camp, I think it’s overkill and will result in him being slightly worn down and not at the level he was for the N’Dam fight.
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