Undefeated Billy Joe Saunders toyed with frustrated the always dangerous David Lemieux in his hometown for a one-sided victory in a successful World Boxing Organization middleweight title defence on Saturday night.
Saunders (26-0) made a third defence of the title the British fighter won from Andy Lee in 2015 and showed he could be a force in the division that is currently ruled by stars Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin.
Lemieux (38-3), a former International Boxing Federation champion, fell short in his bid to become the first Canadian since Arturo Gatti to win a second title.
Saunders had Lemieux off balance from the outset, making the Laval resident miss while darting in to land shots seemingly at will.
Canadian judge Benoit Roussel scored it a 120-108, Briton Phil Edwards had it 118-110 and Gerardo Martinez of Puerto Rico 117-111, all for Saunders. Only the third and sixth rounds were close until the final two rounds that Saunders mainly spent dancing out of Lemieux's reach.
According to Saunders, he is more than willing to face Golovkin in a high stakes unification bout. Golovkin, who holds the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC world titles, had tried to get a fight with Saunders last year.
There were discussions to have them clash collide this past summer, but GGG ruled it out after securing a fight with Canelo for September.
"Golovkin, you kept saying you want my WBO belt when I was 14 stone [196-pounds], out of shape and wasn't in love with boxing," he said in an interview shown on BT Sport.
"Then you wanted to fight me. Fight me now. Now fight me, cos we'll be seeing a different story. You'll be punching fresh air."
Golovkin is likely heading into a lucrative rematch with Canelo on May 5th in Las Vegas. The two boxers fought to a controversial twelve round split draw in their September encounter.