Francisco Valcárcel, the president of The World Boxing Organisation yesterday released their correspondence with both Frank Warren and Eric Gomez of Golden Boy Promotions ordering that both their champion, Billy Joe Saunders and the organisation’s # 1 ranked contender, Canadian David Lemieux come to an agreement which will see the two combatants agree to a title bout inside of the next 30 days.
The WBO also stated that if an agreement cannot be reached inside of the next 30 days, purse bids will be ordered where the minimum bid acceptable for a bout in the middleweight division will be $200,000.00 and at any time during the negotiations; either party has the opportunity to call purse bids.
It looks as if Billy Joe Saunders will be locking horns with a very heavy hitter in the middleweight division, the dangerous David Lemieux who is arguably the most fearsome opponent Saunders will have faced based on punching power alone, on the other hand after numerous high profile fights with opponents such as Gennady Golovkin, Canelo Alvarez and Avtandil Khurtsidze have fallen through and caused distress to Saunders, now presents another opportunity for Saunders to receive genuine respect and acclaim if he bids to put his undefeated 25-0 record on the line and to test himself against one of the middleweight division’s major players.
The Montreal native, David Lemieux will enter the ring boasting a very impressive 38-3 record and having bounced back from his one-sided gruelling defeat to middleweight kingpin Gennady Golovkin in 2015, racking up four back to back victories including what was potentially the knockout of the current calendar year which came to fruition against the game and proven Curtis Stevens which helped earn himself a spot back in title contention.
This match-up potentially makes for a classic boxing match up where once again we are likely to see another case of the boxer against the brawler and while Lemieux’s knockout power is extraordinary, he is limited from a boxing sense which was made readily apparent in the match up with Golovkin and those holes could perhaps once again be exploited by Saunders who does possess superior ring generalship who may just turn this match up into another case of ‘every bull has a matador’.
#WBONews Negotiations for Middleweight Championship Billy Joe Saunders vs. David Lemieux #Boxing#SaundersLemieuxhttps://t.co/2MQbw0K9TH
— WBO (@WorldBoxingOrg) October 10, 2017