By Luke Furman
Last Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Canadian middleweight banger David Lemieux (40-4, 34KOs) sparked out Gary "Spike" O'Sullivan (28-3, 22KOs) in a single round.
After weeks of trash talking from O'Sullivan, Lemieux landed a single big hook to stop him at 2:44 of the aforementioned round. The fight was sanctioned as a WBA world title eliminator.
"I was so mad that I felt alone in the ring," he said in an interview with the TVA Sports. "When I saw him on the floor unable to get up, I thought, 'that's it, all of that for that?' I had prepared for a multi-round war and it ended on my first hook."
Lemieux added: When O’Sullivan talked, I kept it in me. I bring it to the ring, I don’t disrespect my opponents, I don’t trash talk. You can’t compare me now with how I was with Billy Joel Saunders – Saunders is an excellent technician, but I’m physically 100% in shape now. This was my lesson to him, to be humble. I’m tired of these world champions trash talking just to promote their fights. I want to be able to teach my kids and the kids that follow me to be respectful and to never call out a fighter and keep it professional. I hope he learns to be humble, or be humbled."
In the main event that night, Saul "Canelo" Alvarez won an exciting twelve round majority decision over Gennady "GGG" Golovkin to capture the WBC, WBA middleweight titles.
Canelo is considering the possibility of fighting again on December 15 - and Lemieux is a frontrunner to secure that bout.
Both Canelo and Lemieux are promoted by Golden Boy Promotions - which means the contest is easy to make.
Because of his one-sided loss to Golovkin in 2015, Lemieux expects to be the big underdog with Canelo.
"I know I will not be the favorite in this fight, but I know I'm able to surprise everyone," Lemieux said.
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org
2023-10-21 21:16:12
