Lemieux: I've Got A lot of Surprises To Show The World

By Jake Donovan
 
Sure, boxers spend a large portion of their time in training camp isolated from the rest of the world, focused merely on the task at hand. It doesn’t mean they are oblivious to what is said around them.

David Lemieux knew from the moment he agreed to terms for a middleweight title unification bout with Gennady Golovkin that he would be perceived as the heavy underdog. Sure enough, few outside of his own team give him much of a shot at pulling off the upset when they meet this weekend at Madison Square Garden in New York City (Saturday, HBO Pay-Per-View, 9:00 p.m. ET).

Good luck convincing him that he has no chance to win.

“It's not a problem by me,” Lemieux (34-2, 31KOs) says of being viewed as the underdog for the first time in his pro career. “I know who I am.  I have a lot of confidence in myself and my team does, also, which is why we're at where we're at right now and a lot of fighters duck a lot of fighters, I don't.  Golovkin is a very good fighter, but I am also a very good fighter so it's going to be even better for me when I win. 

“To me it makes no difference. I don't really pay attention to the (odds)… I'm focused in the fight, I'm fighting Golovkin in the ring. It’s me against him, and nothing else matters.”

The unification bout kicks off a blitz of significant middleweight action over the next 10 weekends.

In late November comes the World (lineal) championship bout between defending king Miguel Cotto and former super welterweight champ Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. A pair of coin-toss title fights are on top in December: Daniel Jacobs (who holds a secondary belt) facing Peter Quillin in an all-Brooklyn battle at Barclays Center; followed two weeks later by Andy Lee’s second title defense as he faces unbeaten Billy Joe Saunders in Manchester, England.

Of the four bouts, Golovkin-Lemieux is the one where a consensus of fans believe they have it all figured out. On paper, it makes sense. Golovkin (33-0, 30KOs) was a gifted amateur – having earned a Silver medal for Kazakhstan during the 2004 Athens Olympics – and has been a wrecking ball ever since hitting the pro ranks in 2006.

His reign of terror has only been magnified since his stateside debut in 2012, which doubled as his first fight on HBO. The unbeaten knockout artist – who has scored 20 straight stoppages heading into Saturday’s headliner – has emerged as one of the brightest and fastest rising stars in the sport, barely breaking a sweat or losing a round in the process.

Meanwhile, Lemieux’s rise towards the top has been more of a resurrection. The camera-friendly slugger from Montreal was once a highly touted before hitting hard times in 2011, a year in which he suffered the lone two losses of his career. A stoppage defeat at the hands of veteran Marco Antonio Rubio was as much about Lemieux receiving too much too soon into his pro career, as his points loss to Joachime Alcine later in the year was a lesson that changes were necessary if he were to make something of himself in the pro ranks.

Along came gifted trainer Marc Ramsay, with Lemieux having since won nine straight, including his first major title. That last part came in June, with the resurgent middleweight scoring four knockdowns en route to a decision win over Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam in June.

“Those two losses are completely insignificant to where I am today, because everybody has their path, everybody has their ways of doing things and their evolution and becoming a champion,” Lemieux says of having to take the scenic route to get to where he is today. “Some guys go undefeated, some have defeats and become the greatest fighter out there.  They have zero significance and are in my past, those two losses, were miscalculations. 

“I lost those two fights because of things I neglected, and I changed everything in my life to be where I am at today. So I think it's been a big achievement from my behalf to where I am now, and the changes that I have needed to do to fighting for a unification title, so it's a big step I took, and the numbers speak for themselves.”

Of course his opponent’s numbers are why many tab this fight as one that will be fun for as long as it lasts, but ultimately a foregone conclusion.

It’s not so much an indictment on Lemieux as it is crediting the steps taken to elevate Golovkin to the brink of superstardom. Of course, none of the sidebars matter once the opening bell rings.
 
“I don't look at his past or his future or anything like that,” Lemieux notes. “I'm going in there, being me being neutral and him being neutral, we're two hard punchers, and it's going to be -- we're both at 0-0 when we enter into that ring on October 17th.
 
“It's going to be a hard test in front of me but I'm really not worried. I have power, but I'm not going into this fight only with power; I'm going to need all the tools in order to be sharp in a fight of this degree. He's a very good fighter, very smart, but I think I got a lot of surprises to show the world.”
 
Whatever surprises are in store, the one common belief is that something will have to give at some point. Once the fight reaches that point – and it seems both fighters believe it will – intangibles will have to come into play. Boasting an exceedingly high knockout percentage means something only if your opponent is the one getting knocked out.

But what if he keeps coming?

“The fighter with the biggest heart, that can take and receive (will win),” Lemieux firmly believes. “It's not about power; this fight is about character and toughness and determination and who wants it more. We're both hard punchers, everybody knows that but let's see beyond that.

“Everybody understands the gravity of this fight, and I think the people are going to be surprised with what I bring to the table October 17th. I'm a big underdog in this fight; to me it makes no difference. I know who I am, and I know what I'm going to bring to the table, so we will see after the fight.”

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com.
Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
Facebook Page: JakeBScene