By Victor Salazar

New York - Back when David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KO’s) made won his HBO debut against Gabriel Rosado in December of 2014, the questions arose about fighting Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 31 KO’s). Lemieux and his manager Camille Estephan made it clear that once they won a title and an offer was on the table, this fight would be made.

Lemieux returned in June of this year and knocked down the incumbent IBF champion, Hassan N’Dam four times and won the middleweight title in Canada, his home country. True to their word, they made the unification bout with Golovkin set for October 17th.

While the easier route could have been defending his title in Canada a few times before getting in the ring with Golovkin, it wasn’t the champion’s route.

“A lot of guy would get their belt and evade champions,” Estephan told BoxingScene.com. “The word champion actually means something to David. These guys are real champions. They didn’t have to fight each other. We just won a title and we could have defended it in Canada but David wanted this fight because he wants the best. We don’t want to fight guys that are talented enough just to keep the belt. We’re going to be on top of the world Oct 17th”

Estephan feels a win over Golovkin makes him a crossover star even more so because he’s the underdog.

“Being the underdog sometimes takes away some of the pressure,” the manager said. “Every fighter we ever faced we were supposed to lose to like N’Dam and Rosado. We were supposed to lose to Fernando Guerrero. Every fighter has a plan until they get hit by David.”