By Ian S Palmer
Former world middleweight titleholder David Lemieux gets back on the horse when he takes on Karim Achour of France in a 12-round bout at the Videotron Centre in nearby Quebec City this Saturday, May 26th. Lemieux is hoping to regain his confidence after being thoroughly outboxed and somewhat embarrassed over 12 rounds by unbeaten WBO World Middleweight Champ Billy Joe Saunders last December. Achour’s last outing came in February when he beat Patrice Sou Toke by a 12-round unanimous decision. This fight is for something called the WBC Francophone Middleweight Title as well as the Achour’s WBC International Middleweight Crown.
Lemieux is a former IBF Middleweight Champion and the 29-year-old enters the ring with a record of 38-4 along with 33 big Kos. Lemieux has had problems making weight in the past, but he’s hard-hitting brawler with a lot of power and somewhat questionable chin. He usually blasts most of his opponents out, but he’s also been stopped himself a couple of times as Marco Antonio Rubio stopped him in the seventh round in 2011 and Gennady Golovkin stopped him in the eighth round in 2015. His other loss came also came in 2011 when Joachim Alcine beat him by a 12-round majority decision.
Lemieux is just over 5-feet-9- inches with a 70-inch reach. He turned pro in 2007 and has fought 167 rounds since then and owns a current knockout ratio of 79 per cent. He’s beaten some journeymen along the way and lost when stepping up in class against Rubio, Alcine, Golovkin and Saunders. However he stopped Curtis Stevens by a sensational third-round knockout last year, stopped Gabriel Rosado in 10 rounds in 2014, beat Hassan N’Dam by unanimous decision for the vacant IBF crown in 2015 and, Glen Tapia in four in 2016 and beat Marcos Reyes by 10-round unanimous decision last May.
Lemieux isn’t a naturally-gifted boxer, but he works hard for everything he has, possesses heart and power and is quite entertaining. His chin is questionable though and that’s one of the reasons he’s so exciting. He isn’t interested in going to the scorecards and will be looking to stop Achour since he’s a far better slugger than he is a boxer as Saunders exposed in December. Lemieux’s just 29 and with his power it means he’s always a threat to win a world title. However, he needs to stay away from elite boxers and concentrate on fighting other brawlers.
Achour is 31 years old and enters the bout with a mark of 26-4-3 with just 4 Kos. He hasn’t been stopped as of yet so has a pretty good chin, but his power is almost non existent with a current knockout ratio of just 12 per cent. There’s no doubt he’s been brought in as a sacrificial lamb for Lemieux as the former champion will just walk through his offence to land his own power shots. Achour turned pro in 2008 and has 252 rounds of experience to his name. Boxing fans will be hard pressed to recognize any of the former French Middleweight Champion’s opponents.
He did face Martin Murray in June of 2012 and dropped a 10-round points decision. He also lost a 12-round technical decision to Lukas Konecny for the vacant WBO European Middleweight Title in March, 2013. His other losses came to Hadillah Mohoumadi and Nabil Bouneb. Achour’s draws were with Martin Owono, Hadillah Mohoumadi and Moez Fhima. Give Achour credit for stinking with the sport he loves though as he lost one and drew two of his first five pro fights. Also, he hasn’t lost in the past five years and is on a 13-fight unbeaten streak.
Prediction…
It would serve well for Lemieux to try and get a couple of rounds under his belt before trying to blow Achour away. He definitely needs to improve his boxing skills, but I expect him to stop Achour several rounds before the fight reaches the distance.
