12 Jun 2019
When Billy Joe Saunders steps into the ring on Saturday night in Montreal it’ll be the first time the Brit has ever competed professionally abroad. With his WBO Middleweight title on the line for the third time, he’ll be looking to extend his unbeaten run to 26 against David Lemieux.
The Canadian will be keen to put on a show for his home crowd as the Brit makes the potentially dangerous trip across for what some might argue is a challenging turnaround given his latest win against Willie Monroe Jr was just three months ago.
That being said, the willingness of Saunders to travel across to Lemieux’s own backyard suggests the Brit is very confident ahead of the fight. He’s certainly given off that vibe in the pre-fight trash talk, offering up his ‘whole fight purse’ to the Canadian if he gets knocked out.
Trash talk aside, the credentials of both men have come under scrutiny of late, and Saunders may be left to regret his generous monetary offer if he does fall to a knockout blow on Sunday.
As somewhat of a powerhouse, Lemieux has only lost on three occasions during his career, tallying up 33 knockouts from 38 wins.
After an embarrassing defeat to Gennady Golovkin in 2015 in which the Canadian lost every single round before an eighth-round stoppage, Saunders has since branded Lemieux as ‘mentally weak’. Lemieux will hope that those words come back to haunt the Brit, who some have suggested is guilty of ‘switching off’ at times in fights.
Saunders will know that one punch can change everything in boxing. Lemieux is certainly capable of landing it, and with four victories since the Golovkin fight he looks somewhat of a rejuvenated figure, worth a punt at boxing odds of 9/5 to win by knockout.
For Saunders, both his initial WBO title winning fight and two defences have been left down to points decisions. Backed up by a record that has only seen 12 of his 25 wins come by knockout, perhaps surprisingly his stamina has come under dispute of late.
Perhaps fuelled by the fact that he’s only fought once in the last 12 months prior to his last victory, he will however take heart from the fact that aside from Golovkin, Lemieux’s two other losses came as a result of simply not having the gas to go the distance.
They’ll be no time for tiredness on Saturday night for Saunders that’s for sure, but despite his critics Saunders will hope his record speaks for itself once again. If he is to get it done, we think a points victory could be on the cards with boxing outright odds of 17/20 for Saunders to edge this one.
With many viewing Lemieux as one of the three toughest guys Saunders will ever have faced alongside the likes of Chris Eubank Jr and Andy Lee, it looks set to be a mouth-watering affair.
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