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David Lemieux Dominates Hassan N’Dam for The IBF Middleweight Title: Puts Division on Notice

DLBy Travis “Novel” Fleming

Saturday night, one of the hardest punchers in the sport in Canada’s David Lemieux, 34-2, 31 KO’s, put on a vicious display of his talent in a dominating unanimous decision win over Hassan N’Dam, 31-1, 18 KO’s, of Cameroon. N’Dam was knocked down hard four times throughout the one sided battle for the vacant IBF middleweight title. Lemieux became a world champion for the first time in front of his adoring fan base at the Bell Centre, in Montreal.

Lemieux came out guns blazing as usual, cutting the ring beautifully, working the body consistently with powerful left hooks and right hands, and getting inside with nasty left hooks and uppercuts to the head. N’Dam was trying to move and box, but he couldn’t keep the Canadian youngster off of him as Lemieux regularly trapped him in the corners, and on the ropes, with calculated pressure and effective footwork. N’Dam landed some clean blows throughout the fight, but they seemed to bounce off Lemieux with little effect, as the young contender displayed a solid beard. Lemieux was like a man possessed on a mission, and never stopped coming, or appeared in any trouble. He proved that he has improved immensely from his 2011 set backs versus Marco Antonio Rubio, 49-5-1, 43 KO’s, and Joachim Alcine, 32-2-1, 19 KO’s, when he was a 22 year old still learning on the job. Lemieux’s left hook consistently found its mark on N’Dam, who is a good defensive fighter with great movement. His left hook was responsible for four knockdowns that were shocking to watch N’Dam rise from to continue fighting, as they were heavy knockdowns that would fall most men for the count. N’Dam showed that the powers of recovery that he displayed in rising from six knockdowns to fight back and win rounds against Peter Quillin, 31-0-1, 22 KO’s, was no one time phenomena. This man is of a different breed when it comes to rising from hellacious knockdowns. N’Dam has zero quit in him, you’ll have to render him unconscious for the count in order to stop him, and if you did, don’t be surprised to see him jump up and try to continue as soon as he comes to. It looked like things were all over in the sixth, when N’Dam was dropped by a left hook and rose on shaky feet only to get trapped on the ropes and ripped with an absolutely vicious left hook to the body that knocked him down for a second time, this time he appeared to be in immense pain. Remarkably, N’Dam forced himself to his feet, and managed to hang on until the end of the round.

Lemieux brought it from round one until the final bell, and has clearly improved his stamina, and become a more patient fighter using calculated pressure, instead of swinging for the fences. His performance last night against a legitimate top notch middleweight, on top of his last two outings against Gabriel Rosado 21-8, 13 KO’s, and Fernando Guerrero, 26-2, 19 KO’s, should have him ranked behind only Gennady Golovkin, 33-0, 30 KO’s, and Miguel Cotto, 40-4, 33 KO’s, at 160 lbs. At only 26 years old, as a newly crowned champion, and one of Golden Boy Promotions highest priorities, it appears that a star was born last night in a virtuoso performance by Lemieux. The future is very bright for the popular youngster, who has no problem packing arenas, and was on the brink of stardom four years ago before a couple of early career hiccups. He’s got an incredibly fan friendly style, charisma, the look, and the backing.

Gennady Golovkin was probably as happy as anyone about Lemieux’s performance, as he now has a legitimate opponent at 160 that’s actually willing to fight him! Lemieux would be wise to build himself up a little more as a developing champion before tackling a task as dangerous as GGG. If Golden Boy are smart, they will immediately approach Marco Antonio Rubio for a rematch in the first defense of Lemieux’s title to erase the early career blemish. Lemieux was whooping Rubio for six rounds, but didn’t pace himself and gassed by round seven where an exhausted Lemieux started taking too many clean blows, which prompted his corner to throw in the towel to preserve their young prospect. Lemieux has definitely improved to the point where he would be heavily favored to knock out Rubio in a rematch, and its a great career move for a first defense. After Rubio, Golden Boy would be wise to match Lemieux against one of the other champions, or top fighters at 160 lbs like Daniel Jacobs, 29-1, 26 KO’s, Chris Eubank Jr, 19-1, 14 KO’s, Andy Lee, 34-2-1, 24 KO’s, or Peter Quillin, 31-0-1, 22 KO’s. Should Lemieux beat one of those fighters convincingly, it will not only be great for his development, but it would create a massive hype for a fight between him and Golovkin.

Lemieux’s victory has lit a fire in the middleweight division that’s sure to deliver some exciting times at 160 lbs in the near future.

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