Saunders defends title on rival’s turf
Lemieux says British champ would need a low blow with ‘baseball bat’ to beat him in Quebec
>> MONTREAL: Boxing champion Billy Joe Saunders hopes that new surroundings brings out the best in him as he puts his World Boxing Organization middleweight title on the line against David Lemieux.
The 28-year-old Englishman will fight for the first time in North America today as he faces the Canadian at the Laval Place Bell arena in Lemieux’s home province of Quebec.
“I’m used to fighting outside the UK. I’m a traveller of the world,” Saunders said. “I don’t care if there’s a million people [cheering for Lemieux]. It’s just me and him in that ring, end of the story.”
Boxing promoter Frank Warren said Saunders won’t be intimidated by the atmosphere.
“This is a tough fight in the other guy’s back yard, but this is what Bill wanted,” Warren said.
Saunders (25-0, 12 KOs) is hoping to rely on his ring savvy and boxing skills to disarm the explosive punching power of Lemieux, who has 33 KOs in 38 victories.
“[He’s been winning] against bums, knocking out old men,” Saunders said of Lemieux.
In his last fight in September, Saunders made his second defence of his title against Willie Monroe.
He won the WBO title by outpointing Ireland’s Andy Lee two years ago.
Saunders holds the only world title in his weight class that is not in the hands of Gennady Golovkin.
Golovkin is in talks for a rematch with Canelo Alvarez on May 5 and if the pieces fall together, the winner of today’s bout could challenge in a unification fight against Golovkin or Alvarez in September.
Lemieux has recorded four straight wins since being stopped in the eighth round by Golovkin two years ago.
In his last fight, Lemieux (38-3, 33 KOs) outpointed Marcos Reyes at Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena in May.
Lemieux is so confident of a victory that he boasted it would take a low blow from a baseball bat for him to lose to Saunders.
“I don’t know how he can say that he will knock me out. He’s going to hit me in the crotch with a baseball bat? There’s no way Saunders is going to drop me.
“But if he somehow makes it to the end of the fight, I promise he’ll be in the hospital.”
Meanwhile, Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao hopes to unearth the next Chinese world champion and help grow the sport with an academy in the largely untapped country.
The 38-year-old, who controversially lost his WBO welterweight title to Australian Jeff Horn in July, was in Beijing recently.
He and Chinese sports-development firm Dancing Sports held a signing ceremony that included plans to build a Manny Pacquiao International Boxing Academy in the capital, the company said.
Zhou Wenxin, chairman of Dancing Sports, said their tie-up would deepen Chinese-Philippine relations in boxing and beyond.
The academy will draft in coaches from abroad to help develop Chinese boxing, which has never had a truly world-class fighter. There is no public timeline for when it will be built.