By Stanley Pierce: David Lemieux (38-3, 35 KOs) let fans know on Thursday that he’s looking forward to his title fight against WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (25-0, 12 KOs) next month on December 16 at the Place Bell, in Laval, in Quebec, Canada.
Lemieux says Saunders will be visiting the canvas when the two of them meet up.
HBO Boxing will be televising the Saunders vs. Lemieux fight. The network is obviously looking to create interest in a later fight with the winner of the Saunders-Lemieux fight either facing Danny Jacobs or the Gennady “GGG” Golovkin vs. Saul Canelo Alvarez winner.
”A month until your ugly [expletive] visits the canvas Billy Joe Saunders. Enjoy your status for another month till I destroy you,” said Lemieux on his Twitter.
The winner of the Saunders-Lemieux fight will be in a great position to fight the Canelo-Golovkin winner or Jacobs. Lemieux is with Golden Boy, so they’re going to wait to use him against Canelo if he gets past Triple G in their rematch next year. If Canelo loses that fight, Lemieux will have to be assertive with Golden Boy to get them to let him fight Golovkin. That’s probably not a fight that Golden Boy will be interested in making due to how over-matched Lemieux was in losing an 8th round knockout to Golovkin in October 2015.
Saunders hasn’t impressed since his win over Andy Lee. In Saunders’ last 2 fights, he’s looked poor against Willie Monroe Jr. and Artur Akavov. Those were both title defenses for Saunders. The fight against Akavov was very close, and Saunders was lucky the judges gave him the win.
Lemieux wants to destroy Saunders, as he doesn’t like the British fighter due to all the trash talking he’s been doing recently. Lemieux wants to shut him up by knocking him out and sending him home a loser on December 16th.
Saunders, 28, has been hoping to get a big money fight against Canelo or Golovkin for the last 2 years ever since he won the World Boxing Organization 160 lb. title in 2015 after beating Andy Lee. Saunders hasn’t been able to capitalize on being the WBO champion. Saunders will now need to beat Lemieux to keep his dreams alive for fighting Golovkin or Canelo.
Saunders has never fought anyone with the kind of punching power that Lemieux possesses. Saunders did defeat Andy Lee and Chris Eubank Jr., but those guys aren’t nearly as powerful as Lemieux. Lee gave Saunders all kinds of problems in their fight in 2015. Saunders was given a victory; it looked more a draw in the eyes of the boxing fans. Saunders ran out of gas after round 4, and was outworked and out-boxed the last 8 rounds of the fight.
The 5’11” Saunders is a little bit taller than the 5’9″ Lemieux, but that’s the only advantage he has going for him. Lemieux is the harder puncher, and he’ll be fighting at home in Canada. Lemieux is also fighting at a higher level right now, as he’s great in his last 4 fights against Marcos Reyes, Curtis Stevens, Glen Tapia and Cristian Fabian Rios.