By Scott Gilfoid: WBO mandatory challenger David Lemieux (38-3, 33 KOs) says he’s having a career best training camp of his career in preparation for his title fight against WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (25-0, 12 KOs) in 9 days from now on December 16 at the Place Bell in Laval, Quebec, Canada.
Lemieux had this to say on his Twitter about how his training camp is going:
”Having the best training camp of my career. Fight night soon can’t wait 👊 #andthenew.”
Oh my, this sounds bad for Saunders, doesn’t it?. As horrible as Saunders has looked in his last 2 fights, he needs Lemieux to be having his WORST training camp of his career, not his best one. This is terrible news for Saunders. I hate to say it, but I think Saunders is heading for a knockout defeat at the hands of Lemieux on December 16. If Saunders doesn’t find a time machine to take him back to the best year of his career in 2014, when he was beating the likes of Chris Eubank Jr. and Emanuele Felice Blandamura, he’s going to be slaughtered by Lemieux on December 16. I’m just saying. It’s going to be a long plane ride back to the UK from Canada on December 16 for Saunders if he gets royally whipped by Lemieux. Right now, there are few middleweights in the division that I think can compete with Lemieux. He’s looking dangerous right now, and he’s fighting a guy that appears to be on the downside of his career in Saunders.
Saunders has been looking kind of scruffy lately. Taking all that weight off seems to have drained Saunders, making him look a lot older than his 28 years.
Lemieux, 28, is fighting at home in Canada for this bout, and he fully expects to separate the unbeaten Saunders from his highly valued WBO 160 lb. title. Normally, Saunders wouldn’t be sought out by someone of Lemieux’s class for a fight, as he’s not popular worldwide, and he’s not a well-known fighter in Canada. What Saunders has going for him is the WBO middleweight title. That belt is the key to a fortune for Lemieux if he can get his hands on it. With the WBO title, Lemieux will be in position to fight the winner or even the loser of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight. Lemieux can make a bundle against either of those fighters.
Ideally, Lemieux would like to fight Canelo, as he’s the biggest pay-per-view in the U.S right now. Lemieux has already fought Golovkin and lost 2 years ago in an 8th round knockout in October 2015. There would be less interest from the boxing public in a second Golovkin-Lemieux fight. Still, Golovkin vs. Lemieux 2 would be big money fight for the Canadian star, as long as he has the WBO middleweight title in his possession.
Saunders vs. Lemieux will be televised on HBO World Championship Boxing on December 16. The HBO televised portion of the Saunders-Lemieux fight card starts at 9:40 PM ET/6:40 PM PT. Saunders’s WBO middleweight title will be on the line.