David Lemieux and Billy Joe Saunders trade insults

By Boxing News - 06/21/2017 - Comments

Image: David Lemieux and Billy Joe Saunders trade insults

By William Mackay: Former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux and current WBO 160 pound belt holder Billy Joe Saunders traded insults on social media on Tuesday in taking jabs at one another. Lemieux (38-3, 33 KOs) wants to fight the 27-year-old Saunders in his next fight, and the feelings seem mutual.

With Lemieux now rated #2 by the World Boxing Organization at middleweight, he might be the next in line to face Saunders now that Avtantil Khurtsidze is out of the picture due to his recent arrest. The WBO reportedly stripped the 38-year-old Khurtsidze of his interim WBO title due to his legal issues, and that mean the WBO will be looking to replace him as Saunders’ next opponent.

Saunders and Khurtsidze had been scheduled to fight next month on July 8 until Khurtsidze’s recent arrest wiped out the fight.

Saunders has now been tentatively scheduled for September 16 at the Copper Box Arena in London, England. Saunders’ fight is on the same night as Gennady “GGG” Golovkin vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight, which is taking place in the States at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Saunders wants to fight the winner of the Canelo-Golovkin fight. Saunders even showed up at the Canelo vs. Golovkin international press tour stop this week in London in order to confront both fighters and ask them if the winner will agree to fight him next.

Golovkin dismissed Saunders in front of the media, telling him he’s not a promoter, and that he needs to contact his own promoter to have him setup the fight when the time is right. Canelo whispered to Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez that he’d beat Saunders with his eyes closed and one hand tied behind his back.

“BJ Saunders, I can’t wait to make you bleed and take that belt away from you. I’m going to destroy you. See you soon, [expletive],” Lemieux said on his Twitter.

Rather than ignoring Lemieux, the southpaw Saunders responded with his own Twitter post:
“[Expletive] boy, are you next in line so let’s go,” Saunders said.

Lemieux is next in line based on the WBO’s rankings. Here is the WBO’s top 5 rankings now that Khurtside is no longer in the picture:

1. Saul Canelo Alvarez

2. David Lemieux

3. Ryota Murata

4. Rob Brant

5. Willie Monroe Jr.

Canelo obviously can’t take the fight with Saunders for September 16. That leaves Lemieux as the next available contender in the WBO’s top 5 rankings. Based on the way that Lemieux tweeted to Saunders on Tuesday, it appears that he wants to fight him next. That’s both good and bad for Saunders. It’s a good deal because Lemieux is a popular fighter in Canada, U.S and in worldwide boxing.

A fight between Saunders and Lemieux will attract a lot of interest in the boxing world, and in the UK, which is where Saunders plans on fighting next. If Saunders can beat the hard hitting 28-year-old Lemieux, it would help create a lot more interest in him fighting the winner of the Canelo-Golovkin fight. For all intents and purposes, Saunders would be earning his right to a fight with the Canelo vs. GGG winner if he defeats Lemieux.

In Saunders’ last fight, he beat fringe contender Artur Akavov by a close 12 round unanimous on December 3 in Paisley, Scotland. The judges scored the fight 116-113, 116-1112 and 115-113. Fellow Boxing News 24 writer Scott Gilfoid scored the fight in favor of Akavov. I saw the Saunders-Akavov fight, and I saw it as a 12 round draw. Saunders didn’t lose the fight, but he didn’t win it either in my eyes.

The Russian Akavov had bad luck in the fight of his career. Saunders hasn’t fought since then. He’s put on weight, and he’s not burned all the weight off yet judging by how chunky he looked earlier this week at the Canelo vs. Triple G press conference in London.

Khurtsidze’s legal problems now give Saunders more time to take the weight off before he fights in September. Had Saunders fought on July 8, I’m not sure that he would have been able to take all the weight off in time for the fight without him draining himself badly.

Former middleweight world champion Danny Jacobs has talked recently about him waning to fight Saunders in his next fight. Jacobs is rated No.6 by the WBO. There’s no reason for Saunders to take a risky fight against Jacobs. He’s not ranked high enough to force the fight with Billy Joe, and he’s a real threat.

Jacobs almost beat Golovkin in his last fight on March 18. Jacobs isn’t a really popular fighter. That more than anything hurts his chances for a fight with Saunders. There’s no question that Saunders would readily accept a fight with Jacobs if he were as popular as GGG and Canelo, but he’s not. There’s no upside for Saunders in facing a fighter that isn’t highly popular like Jacobs and who is coming off of a 12 round decision loss to Golovkin last March.

Lemieux lost his International Boxing Federation middleweight title 2 years ago in an 8th round knockout loss to Golovkin in October 2015. Lemieux was unable to do much with Golovkin’s powerful jab hitting him in the face all night long. In round 8, Golovkin hurt Lemieux with a body shot.

The referee stepped in and stopped the fight at that point. Lemieux has put together 4 straight wins over Marcos Reyes, Curtis Stevens, Cristian Fabian Rios and Glen Tapia. Lemieux looked pretty good in all three fights. Reyes was able to take a lot of punishment from Lemieux and land some shots in losing a one-sided 10 round unanimous in their recent fight on May 6. It was still a dominating performance by Lemieux. The punches that Reyes absorbed would have knocked out most fighters in the middleweight division.

Saunders would be better off by not fighting Lemieux if he can help it. There’s too much risk involved for Saunders. He wants the big payday fight against the Canelo-GGG winner. If Saunders fights Lemieux, there’s a very good chance that he’ll lose that fight and end up missing out on a life-changing payday against the Canelo and Golovkin winner. If the WBO forces Saunders to fight Lemieux, it’s going to be potentially bad news for Saunders. Lemieux is probably the hardest puncher in the middleweight division today.

Triple G has major power as well, but he doesn’t consistently with the power that Lemieux does. Golovkin occasionally loads up with a big power shot with everything on it, but mostly he’s throwing with medium to three-quarter power. In contrast, Lemieux punches with everything he has each time he throws a shot. He wears down his opponents because of the massive power he puts on his shots.

Throwing with that kind of power also wears Lemieux. He can punch incredibly hard for 5 to 6 rounds before he starts to fade, If you’re one of the rare fighters that can handle Lemieux’s power for that long, then you have a chance of beating him. In Lemieux’s last fight against Reyes, he tired after the 5th round. However, Lemieux got his second wind in the second half of the fight, and began to really tattoo Reyes with tremendous shots in the later rounds.

It was impressive to see Lemieux still punching with enormous power in the later rounds. Reyes took a terrible beating in going the distance with Lemieux.

There’s too much money on the line for Saunders with him waiting on the Canelo and GGG fight to conclude. Saunders needs to try and sidestep the Lemieux fight if he can. Perhaps Saunders’ promoter can give Lemieux a step aside payment to get him out of the way so that he can take a voluntary defense. Saunders and his promoter should try and get the WBO to let them steer around Lemieux to take a voluntary defense with the condition that they would fight him at some point in 2018.