Oscar De La Hoya is predicting that former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux will come out quickly on December 16 and look to steamroll WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in their fight.
The fight will be shown on HBO Boxing. The winner of the fight will be in line for a fight with the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight.
Reigning WBO middleweight champ Billy Joe Saunders deserves credit for facing the dangerously hard-hitting David Lemieux next month; but the unbeaten southpaw deserves even more credit for agreeing to face the former IBF champ in Canada. And while BJS is convinced he has the beating of Lemieux, the notion of his being robbed if the fight goes down to the wire and is at all close has crossed his mind.
Rematch negotiations between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin are going very slow according to Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya. Golovkin is still the main target for Canelo’s next fight on May 5th, but he’s not the only one in that is being considered.
There was a lot of hostility in the air today, while the WBO World Middleweight Champion Billy Joe Saunders (25-0, 12 KOs) and former IBF World Middleweight Champion David Lemieux (38-3, 33 KOs) were hosting a press conference to discuss their upcoming showdown to be held on Dec. 16 at the Place Bell in Laval, Quebec. Saunders vs. Lemieux is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Eye of the Tiger Management, in association with Frank Warren, and will be televised live on HBO World Championship beginning at 9:40 p.m. ET/PT.
Christmas will come early for boxing fans this year as WBO World Middleweight Champion Billy Joe Saunders (25-0, 12 KOs) will put his belt on the line on Saturday, December 16 against former IBF World Middleweight Champion David Lemieux (38-3, 33 KOs) at a soon-to-be announced venue in Montreal, Canada. The fight will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 9:40 p.m. ET/PT.
Various reports (including one via Dan Rafael of ESPN) say Billy Joe Saunders and David Lemieux will fight in Canada on December 16, the two having reached an agreement that rules out the need for the WBO-ordered fight to go to purse bids.
An excellent fight and a superb match-up, the WBO middleweight title fight will further add to what is shaping up as a great end to the year’s boxing calendar. Saunders, unbeaten and craving the big, big fights for some time, must be commended for agreeing to travel to Lemieux’s Canadian fortress to take this fight, while power-puncher Lemieux must now figure out Saunders’ effective boxing style and land his big bombs.
Canadian power-puncher David Lemieux recently put out a tweet, in which he declared how his “tools are sharpening up and [ I am] ready to destroy soon.” It’s exciting that the former IBF middleweight champ, arguably the single hardest puncher in the sport today, pound-for-pound, is set to be back in action – even if we don’t yet know for certain who he will be facing on December 2.
It’s possible the fight has been overtaken somewhat in terms of hype and fan attention (an understatement if ever there was one!) but Miguel Cotto will face Yoshihiro Kamegai on August 26; the night Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor meet up in what is either a joke fight or a genuinely fascinating crossover fight (depending on your own view).
We are all waiting for talented and unbeaten WBO middleweight champ Billy Joe Saunders to get a fight where he can really, truly prove his worth. The gifted southpaw has called out Gennady Golovkin, on numerous occasions, as well as other big names of his division and elsewhere; but the massive fights have, for one reason or another, proven elusive for BJS.
All set to fight dangerous, sawn-off banger Avtandill Khurtsidze on July 8, Saunders saw that intriguing fight fall apart due to his would-be challenger’s shocking arrest for, well, all manner of seriously alleged things. So without a dance partner when he seriously needs one (Saunders has boxed just once since December of 2015) the 24-0(12) champ might just have found one in monster puncher David Lemieux.
Middleweight contender David Lemieux (39-3, 33 KOs) tried his best to score a quick knockout over high level journeyman Marcos Reyes (35-5, 26 KOs) tonight, but it failed to happen so he had to settle for winning a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision on Saturday night on the undercard of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. card at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.