By Allan Fox:David Lemieux says he’s going to do everyone a big favor by getting rid of Billy Joe Saunders by knocking him out on Saturday night to take his WBO middleweight title in their fight on HBO World Championship Boxing.
(Photo credit: Vincent Ethier/EOTTM)
Lemieux (38-3, 33 KOs) says he’s been receiving a lot of mail from fans in the UK, who want him to beat Saunders (25-0, 12 KOs) to get finish him as a champion. That’s what Lemieux, 28, plans on doing when he meets up with Saunders at the Place Bell in Laval, Quebec, Canada.
Saunders hasn’t faced a puncher with Lemieux’s kind of power before. Saunders beat Andy Lee, who is a big puncher, and Chris Eubank Jr., but those guys don’t throw with the same type of power with a single hot as Lemieux. Saunders is going to need to take some big shots for him to have a chance of beating Lemieux.
“There are a lot of fans in England who’ve written to me because they don’t like Saunders, and they want me to get rid of him,” Lemieux said. “I’ll do everyone a favor, I’ll take care of him.”
Saunders is pretty cocky about the fight with Lemieux. Saunders is even planning his next fight by talking up a fight between him and Saul Canelo Alvarez on May 5. Saunders wants move Gennady Golovkin out of the way to fight Canelo next on Cinco de Mayo in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Saunders’ promoter Frank Warren says Lemieux is mostly dangerous in the early rounds of his fights. Warren seems to be hinting that Saunders could try and spoil in the early going so he can make it to the second half of fight.
Lemieux is coming into Saturday’s fight with Saunders having won his last 4 matches since his 8th round TKO defeat the hands of Gennady Golovkin in 2015. Lemieux has since beaten Glen Tapia, Cristian Rios, Curtis Stevens, and Marcos Reyes. Lemieux injured his right shoulder in his last fight against Reyes. Lemieux couldn’t get Reyes out of there, but he did give him a lot of punishment.
”He will hit the floor,” said Lemieux in talking of Saunders. ”And whether I win by knockout or go 12 rounds, it’s no matter. But I will drop him and I will hurt him.”
Lemieux says he’s learned a lot from his loss to Golovkin in 2015. Lemieux is more aggressive now, and more willing to trade big shots so he can increase his chances for a knockout. Lemieux found out the hard way that it doesn’t pay off for him to give his opponents too much respect. A win for Lemieux over Saunders will make him a lot of money by putting him in position to fight the winner of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. GGG fight. Lemieux might even get a shot at Canelo before he faces Golovkin. That would be ideal, because a match against Canelo will make Lemieux more money than a fight against Golovkin.
“It’s a very dangerous fight,” said Saunders’ promoter Frank Warren to Behind The Gloves. “He’s fighting his mandatory in his own backyard. He’s a really big puncher. He’s very dangerous early on in his fights. The good thing about Bill is he’s got a good engine.
If Lemieux gets rid of Saunders, then it will definitely make a lot of boxing fans happy, because he’s annoyed a lot of them over the years with his trash talking.