By Ian S Palmer
The vacant IBF Middleweight Championship will be on the line this Saturday, June 20 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada where hometown fighter David Lemieux will be taking on former champion Hassan N’Dam of France. The 12-round bout will be broadcast line in the USA by Fox Sports 2 while British fans can catch it live courtesy of BoxNation. The fight comes on the 35th anniversary of the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard vs Roberto Duran ‘Brawl in Montreal’ that took place at the city’s outdoor Olympic Stadium.
The 26-year-old Lemieux enters this contest with an impressive 33-2 record along with 31 Kos while the 31-year-old N’Dam is 31-1 and has 18 Kos to his name. Lemieux is a hard-hitting brawler with a lot of power and questionable chin while N’Dam is more of a pure boxer. Lemieux generally blasts most of his opponents out, but he’s also been stopped himself when Marco Antonio Rubio of Mexico beat him in the seventh round back in 2011. His other loss came the same year when Joachim Alcine beat him by a 12-round majority decision. was a to N’Dam’s lone defeat came at the hands of world champion Peter Quillin in October of 2012.
Lemieux stands 5-feet-nine-and-a-half-inches tall with a reach of 70 inches. He turned pro back in 2007 and has fought 108 rounds since then. His knockout power is quite obvious as his current stoppage ratio stands at 88.6 per cent. He’s beaten some journeymen boxers along the way and was beaten when he stepped up in class against Rubio and Alcine. However, he did stop Gabriel Rosado in 10 rounds back in his last outing in December.
N’Dam is 5-foot-11 and has an unlisted reach. He turned pro in 2004 and has 219 rounds under his belt. His knockout percentage is 56.3. N’Dam’s chin may be questioned since Quillin dropped him six times in their bout, but his heart can’t be questioned as he kept getting to his feet and tried to make a fight of it. However, he’s going to have to be careful against Lemieux since the Canadian is a pure power puncher. N’Dam has plenty of experience as he’s also taken on the likes of Curtis Stevens, Fulgencio Zuniga and Max Bursak.
This fight will basically come down to Lemieux’s power against N’Dam’s chin. However, Lemieux needs to make sure he doesn’t walk into one of his opponent’s solid shots or he could find himself on the canvas too.
Prediction
Lemieux can sometimes look like a world class boxer with excellent power and he can sometimes look amateurish. However, time’s on his side as he’s just 26 years old. He definitely has enough dynamite in his fists to stop N’Dam, but it’s questionable as to whether he has the skills to outbox him. Lemieux will be in a bit of trouble if N’Dam can take his best shots or lands his own power punches. But since he’s fighting at home, look for Lemieux to take the title by a stoppage in an exciting affair.
