In order to keep his WBO middleweight title, Billy Joe Saunders is going have to go on the road to beat Canadien David Lemieux. Saunders will defend his title in a 12-round battle against Lemieux this Saturday at Place Bell in Laval, Quebec, Canada.
Saunders, who is from the UK, believes that fighting in Canada will not be a problem.
“I go to enemy territory all the time,” Saunders said in a conference call on Monday. “Where I’m from, when I boxed Andy Lee, it was the biggest feud amongst possible gypsy culture, English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh all there in one mixture. Most of them there for Andy Lee. I perform under pressure. I’ve seen David’s absolute best performance against Gennady Golovkin. I think David is very weak in the mind. And at the end, I don’t care if it’s in his backyard, put the ring there. As long as there’s a ring we can get in, that’s all that matters. I’m quite happy to know I’m under his skin because, if he wants to play a boxing match, then bring a blindfold, and I’ll put it on, and I’ll beat him. That’s how confident I am.”
One thing that Saunders(25-0, 12 KOs) needs to worry about is Lemieux’s power(38-3, 33 KOs), but Saunders is not concerned.
“He’s a tough man with power. He lost his next and then fought bums all the way up until Golovkin. Curtis Stevens, he’s not an A-level fighter. He’s just a step up, a bit of a seasonal fighter,” Saunders said. “He’s really nothing special. He dealt with him, fair play. But he got spanked by Golovkin previous to that. When you mix him up against the very, very best of the league, he’s not quite comfortable. He didn’t win a round against Golovkin.”
Saunders has the utmost confidence in his chin, and believes it will hold up against Lemieux.
“My chin will hold up. I’ll promise you that. That’s one thing I’ll promise you, my chin will definitely hold up,” Saunders said.
We’ll see if Saunders’ chin can hold up come Saturday night in Canada.
