Billy Joe Saunders traveled to enemy territory tonight on HBO to defend his WBO middleweight belt against David Lemieux. The decision turned out well in Montreal for the British champion as he looked as good as he ever has in the ring tonight.
Billy Joe Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs) had a really sharp first round against David Lemieux (38-4, 33 KOs). The power punching Canadian was completely befuddled by Saunders movement and fast hands. The winner of the first was clear. Lemieux was such a non-factor in the opening frame that Roy Jones Jr, who otherwise had a great night on the mic, kept forgetting his name. The second was much of the same, but with Saunders jab becoming even more effective. A big overhand left nailed Lemieux to punctuate the round right before the bell as well.
The French-Canadian title challenger increased his pressure in round three and started to touch Saunders for the first time in the fight, but he still didn’t come close to winning it. The fourth was very similar to the third with Saunders doing the landing while Lemieux did the pressuring, but I did think maybe Billy Joe was starting to tire a bit. Still, the defending titleholder was easily four rounds up at this point.
The British titleholder broke out an amazing bit of showmanship in the fifth when a Lemieux haymaker missed big. Saunders held his glove over his eyes and looked into the rafters in the direction of the shot as if to see where it went. Otherwise, it was more of the WBO champion easily outboxing his challenger. The sixth was more of the same.
The seventh was still dominated by Billy Joe Saunders, but it wasn’t more of the same. As his corner discussed with him earlier in the fight, the plan here was to step up the aggression after the sixth and he did. Here Saunders stopped outboxing Lemieux and instead started beating him up. Several shots seemed to bother Lemieux in a seventh round that was a complete beating. The eighth wasn’t much different.
The only real weakness that we have seen from Billy Joe Saunders so far in his very successful career has been a minor stamina issue late in fights. On this night given all the damage Saunders had done in the first eight rounds, it didn’t look like it would matter. Billy Joe did take the ninth off, however, and David Lemieux was able to land his first two punches of the night in sequence in the tenth. Saunders did rally in the last half of the tenth to make sure his shut out stayed intact.
Lemieux had his best round of the fight in the eleventh, but that is only to say that he lost it somewhat competitively instead of in a rout. Before the twelfth the Canadian corner made the obvious clear that a knockout was needed. Billy Joe Saunders smartly would have none of it, however. He conceded the final, pointless round by circling the ring and staying out of the way much to the chagrin of the French-Canadian crowd. That was the only round I gave to David Lemieux in the fight. The judges mostly agreed with a shut out and the other two near it, though one did somehow give the home fighter three rounds.
Post-fight Billy Joe Saunders credited his trainer Dominic Ingle with his improvement and then called out Gennady Golovkin. David Lemieux complained of a left hand injury in his interview. I don’t know what that matters since he couldn’t land it anyway, but he made sure to drop that in there.
