Lemieux: De La Hoya, Hopkins Want Me To Destroy GGG

By Radio Rahim

IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-2, 31KOs) has an all-star list of backers, with Golden Boy Promotions executives Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins giving him tips and advice for the upcoming battle with WBA/IBO middleweight champion Gennady "GGG" Golovkin (33-0, 30KOs).

The HBO Pay-Per-View unification showdown takes place on October 17th from New York's Madison Square Garden. 

De La Hoya is a former WBO middleweight champion and Hopkins is the only fighter in history to unify the WBO/WBA/IBF/WBC titles at 160-pounds - and he unified three of those titles in 2001 with a knockout of Felix Trinidad in Madison Square Garden. And then he knocked out his current partner, De La Hoya, to gain the WBO strap.

Lemieux has been joking with reporters, telling them that he received marching orders to "destroy Golovkin."

While he admits that he's joking about the marching orders, he's pretty confident that Golovkin's destruction is exactly what De La Hoya and Hopkins want from him.

"[They want me to] destroy him, destroy him. Bernard talks to me about his points of view, that he was down this road with Tito. Regarding the advice, they are letting me do what I got to do and they know that I have a very good team around me. They are very confident. That's a joke, [with them telling me to destroy him], but I'm sure that's the plan [they want from me]," Lemieux said.