By Carlos Boogs
Bernard Hopkins, a partner in Golden Boy Promotions, is confident IBF middleweight beltholder David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KOs) will overcome the long odds by defeating WBA, IBO and WBC Interim middleweight champion Gennady "GGG" Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) in their scheduled unification on October 17th at New York's Madison Square Garden. The fight will be carried on HBO Pay-Per-View.
The contest is making Hopkins often reflect on his own upset, back in 2001, when he took part in his own middleweight unification at Madison Square Garden. Hopkins was a very big underdog when he met Felix Trinidad, and handed Trinidad his first loss by knockout.
Hopkins says Lemieux has the power, the boxing ability and the will power to turn back Golovkin, who knocked out nearly all of his opponents and high percentage of them in the early rounds.
“Lemieux will be able to make the adjustments and he has all of the ingredients to, as they say, upset Triple G. The goal is to make him feel uncomfortable and Triple G has not felt uncomfortable in 90+ percent of his fights. With all that, it is not going to be an easy task but one worth taking on to become the undisputed middleweight champion," Hopkins said.
"What he has to do is follow the blueprint and be perfect – yes I said that word. The odds are 16:1? That’s a lot of money. Buster Douglas had worse odds than that when he beat Tyson. It can be done when you have a real live dog that can step it up when it’s time.”