Saunders to Lemieux: “I’m coming for you!”

By Boxing News - 12/04/2017 - Comments

Image: Saunders to Lemieux: "I’m coming for you!”

By Scott Gilfoid: WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders posted a message on Sunday to challenger David Lemieux, saying that he’s coming to the lion’s den to smash him on December 16 at the Place Bell in Laval, Canada.

Frankly, if Saunders makes it through the 4th round, I’ll be shocked. Lemieux is looking like an unstoppable beast right now. Lemieux is hungry and he’s not going to stop for nobody. Saunders is in his way, and he’s going to in the path of the beast that night.

Even Saunders at his best would have major problems against Lemieux with the way he’s fighting now. But Saunders isn’t at his best. He left his prime in the rear-view mirror 3 years ago in his win over Chris Eubank Jr. in 2014. The version of Saunders we’ve seen lately is a faded fighter, living off of yesterday’s accomplishments. Saunders still has the WBO middleweight title in his possession, but only because he’s been fighting soft opponents in Artur Akavov and Willie Monroe Jr.

Saunders isn’t known for his punching power. He’s more of a pure boxer, who does a little bit of moving when he’s not gassing out. Saunders can move pretty well for 5 or 6 rounds, but then he fades and mostly fights stationary. It’s going to be real shock to Saunders’ career if he gets knocked out by Lemieux in this fight, because he stands to make so much money if he can fight the winner of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight. It’s a big positive for Saunders if he can win this fight and get to the Canelo-GGG winner.

Saunders and Lemieux have 13 days to go before their big fight on HBO Championship Boxing. Saunders has been fighting in front of his home fans for his entire career. But when Saunders faces Lemieux, he’s going to be in unfamiliar territory, fighting in front of a large crowd of pro-Lemieux fans. It’s going to be difficult for Saunders. He’s used to be cheered every time he throws a punch. He’ll need to adjust to being the visiting fighter for this occasion.

Saunders has dropped a lot of weight for this fight. He was looking fat when the fight was announced with Lemieux (38-3, 33 KOs), but he’s been working out hard since training camp started to get down to his fighting weight. Saunders looks a little too thin right now. That’s the typical thing that happens with fighters that have gotten too fat. When they’re forced to take off too much weight in a short period of time, they wind up looking thin and weak. We’ve seen that from Saunders in his last 2 fights against Akavov and Monroe Jr. Saunders didn’t have to pay the price int hose fights for over training due to those guys not being big punchers.