Review by AllTheBestFights.com: 2017-12-16, pretty good fight between Billy Joe Saunders and David Lemieux: it gets three stars.The undefeated Wbo Mw champion Billy Joe Saunders entered this fight with a perfect record of 25-0-0 (12 knockouts) and he is ranked as the No.6 middleweight in the world. In his last three bouts he has won over Andy Lee (=Lee vs Saunders), Artur Akavov (=Saunders vs Akavov) and Willie Monroe Jr (=Saunders vs Monroe Jr).
His opponent, the former Ibf Mw champion David Lemieux, has an official boxing record of 38-3-0 (33 KOs=87%) and he entered as the No.7 in the same weight class. He lost to #1 Mw Gennady Golovkin in 2015 (=Golovkin vs Lemieux) but then he has won four bouts defeating Curtis Stevens (4-stars fight, Lemieux vs Stevens) and Marcos Reyes in 2017 (=Lemieux vs Reyes). Lemieux vs Saunders is valid for the WBO World middleweight title. Watch the video and rate this fight!
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Date: 2017-12-16
Where: Place Bell, Laval, Quebec, Canada
Division: middleweight (160 lbs, 72.6 kg)
Title: WBO World middleweight title
Saunders’ previous fight: Billy Joe Saunders vs Willie Monroe Jr
Lemieux’s previous fight: David Lemieux vs Marcos Reyes
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Saunders vs Lemieux full fight video:
(Free embeddable video hosted on Youtube and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights)
Official highlights
tango2042 
Olivier Veillette 
Arjay Cee 
Mattsnow 
Brilliant boxing by Billie Joe Saunders. I half expected he was washed up, but he impressively dominated Lemieux.
This happened to be the worst possible matchup for Lemieux and the best for Saunders. I thought the fight would be much closer than that. Saunders’ superior overall speed was the key to victory. I feel he’s ready for the big fight. I believe he would stand a chance against the aging Golovkin, just like Jacobs was able to trouble the Kazakh. I would favor Alvarez as a winner over Saunders because he’s able to cut the ring off (unlike Lemieux) and is faster in my view.
I’m questioning Lemieux’s preparation for this fight (and other fights before). I read across the internet that Lemieux should develop a more effective footwork. Of course, the guy’s got one of the worst footwork I’ve ever seen, but in my opinion in would be in vain to work on that at this stage of his career. Instead, he could’ve used more feints, more head movement coming in against Saunders. But he didn’t and that’s why I’m questioning his preparation. Just like Pascal (another fighter coached by Ramsay), Lemieux always had a tough time avoiding getting hit by jabs. That being said, Lemieux said his left shoulder was injured during the second round. Not sure it’s true and that really made a difference.
Well said, Olivier. I like the Golovkin matchup better for Saunders than the Alvarez one, too.
Lemieux can continue to have success, but as you say, he should add a certain gear of subtlety to his game. For 90% of his competition, he will be lethal. But the very elite will be on the move, doing what Saunders did. A fight with Daniel Jacobs, for example, would be a disaster.
Speaking of Jacobs, what do you think of his future in the division? I’d love to see if he could out-maneuver Alvarez.
Jacobs-Lemieux would be a disaster indeed! Two possibilities I would love as a boxing fan regarding Jacobs opportunities:
– He could try to move up in weight and seek a rematch against Truax for his title. But I guess Truax wouldn’t take that risk.
– HBO could arrange a mega-venue in Vegas: Golovkin-Alvarez as the main event and Saunders-Jacobs as the undercard (I know, I’m daydreaming). Then the winners of thse fights would fight one another. What do you think? ;)
Yes, I like that dream!
I hear Saunders making noises about a rematch with Spike O’Sullivan, an utterly pointless contest that would keep him busy. He should fight Jacobs instead, but the risk-reward ratio is apparently too high. Grrrrr.
As you say, Daniel is in the odd position of being too risky for Truax, too, and just about everyone else. I hope he makes great fights in 2018, but I fear he won’t. He needs a title. Sadly, at middleweight, Golovkin isn’t going to give him a rematch while there’s big money to be made.
Boxing: the sport we love and which drives us crazy. ;) Happy New Year, Olivier!
Haha! True… true. Happy New Year to you too Arjay!
Lemieux is just a puncher his basics are terrible he’s one of those guys who should be in mma but isntbecause he has the power eraser. I expected this scenario or a lucky hookby lemieux in the first 3
What a horrible boxing that was. Saunders holding every time each round nothing was done about it and he danced the night away. It is a shame to call this boxing he literally ran around the ring. Lemieux didn’t pressure him at all I expected more from him. Nobody wants to see fights like this and after brexit Saunders can fight domestically. There they will like him. Commentary was horrible. What a nightmare. Fury brothers, Saunders all horrible to watch. Eubanks is definetly better to watch than this dancing at the ring. Woow.
What are you talking about, Saunders gave him a lesson, Lemeiux was hitting fresh air. He won a fight easily in his opponents backyard.
Slovak: I feel bad too but precisely this is boxing, the art of attack and defend yourself using master techniques and not just pure power. Unfortunately, Billy played with David as the cats do with the mouses.
I’m surprised he could keep fighting at that pace, I would totally be interested in a Canelo Saunders fight
Unfortunately a very frustrating night for our boxer who was totally dominated and outclassed for a very technical boxer who has quick hands and accuracy.
In my opinion, with no doubts, in top of its skills, Billy is a gifted southpaw with reach advantage also, which help him a lot to incline the result on his favor. However, this is what usually happen when a technical boxer clash against one with a punching power. Most of the time skills prevails over power. In favor of Lemieux i can say he try very hard but with very negligible results.
I disliked very much the arrogance that Billy displayed during the whole fight. I’ll like to see him fighting against to GGG and/or Canelo in order to determine his real credentials.
i call this dancing with the stars. this guy is getting out of the fight in every way possible and now he wants to fight top guys. he is bad for boxing. the only thing missing that night was a piroutte.