Vinny’s Views: David Lemieux Vs Marcos Reyes – The Stats, The Facts and Fight Prediction!

By Vinny “Glory Days” Lucci

While the marquee names on HBO and Showtime headliners keep boxing on the map it’s the hungry challengers who keep the sport grounded and in focus of future events. Enter David Lemieux. The high profile and energetic Canadian is a crowd pleasing gate keeper looking for right fights to realign himself another crack at multi belted middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin.

On March 11 Lemieux faced off with name contender Curtis Stevens in a scheduled 12 rounder. Both men could bang and box and shared the distinction of having been beaten in title shots to Golovkin. The first two rounds it appeared David took a page out of his loss to Gennady and learned how to put it into application against Curtis. He worked behind a ramrod jab, moved forward, and attacked body on both sides upstairs and down with a relentless abandon and ignoring the pain of whatever counters found their mark. Lemieux stopped him cold in third round with picturesque compact left hook.

Instead of sitting back on his laurels and waiting for the fallouts to clear between bouts of Golovkin Vs Daniel Jacobs and Canelo Alvarez Vs Julio Cesar Chavez, JR., David decided to keep sharp and in the public’s eye promising he’s ready for another crack at title.

Talks of meeting catch weight king Canelo were bandied about for some time but he lost out to the marketable Mexican Chavez, JR. with Cinco de Mayo used as a selling point, spell binding the dedicated Latin American audience as well as committed and causal fans. Intelligently he instead got himself added to that high profile card as a good appetizer to main event.

Chosen for this mission is another Mexican boxer, the onetime durable Marcos Reyes who lost a ten round decision to Chavez, JR. back in 2010 and is blessed with a few God given attributes that can present problems for the betting favorite with chiseled good looks.

The Stats:

Lemieux stands 5’9 ½ “and makes the middleweight limit comfortably. The 28 year old owns a 70” reach and fights from the orthodox stance. He boasts a note worthy record of 37-3, 33 KO’s.

Reyes stands 6’2” with an impressive 76” wingspan. The contender also fights from orthodox stance. His record stands at 35-4, 26KO’s. At 29 years old on paper it’s a nice match up of fan friendly styles. In his last bout Marcos fought a tune up against “opponent” Diego Rivera stopping him by TKO. Rivera had lost 6 out of his last 7 bouts and served only as a sacrificial lamb to get Marcos back on winning side of ledger after having just lost to battle tested Elvin Ayala by TKO four months earlier.

Styles:

Lemieux can box or brawl and displays terrific power with either hand and can add one punch KO exclamation mark on top of ceaseless and brutal body attack. His defense is good, but he sometimes forgets to properly cover up when letting both hands go. Usually it isn’t exploited but Golovkin used a thunderous jab and lots of movement to wear David down in 2015.

Reyes is a boxer who has built a respectable record on suspect opposition having fought all but a handful of opponents in Mexico with nary a recognizable name on resume. Marcos simply doesn’t make the best use of his attributes and often just paws with his jab surrounding his reach advantage. His power attack is often executed without putting his back and shoulder behind his punches. With 208 rounds of professional experience he has the smarts to read his foes and navigate the warfare from inside the pocket and keeping safe range from outside. For a flat footed boxer he still is nimble on spindly legs but has trouble with trench warfare. He can’t commit to both defense and offense at the same time.

The intangibles:

Will David take Reyes too casually and overlook him with the prospects of fighting on world stage once again? Can Marcos demonstrate a prolonged surge of offensive power in timely bursts to keep Lemieux honest and from boring in? Will he be able to offset The Canadians jab by putting some whip on his own? Once David commits to the pocket and refuses to leave as is his penchant can Reyes keep up the pace without folding?

The odds:

Lemieux will comfortably be a 4/1 favorite. Chances at a draw are 100/1

The fight:

No reason to highlight what to look for as this one will come into focus in first thirty seconds and deviate little. David will be highly motivated to impress the pay per view audience as well as the live gate and possible future opponent Canelo along with Golden Boy Promotions. He will not disappoint. Make no mistake Reyes was brought in as an “opponent” to showcase Lemieux’s speed and power. On this night he’ll resemble a middleweight version of vintage Mike Tyson and administer a beating.

Prediction:

David Lemieux by stoppage in 5 rounds or less.

Event: To be hosted at T. Mobile Arena, Paradise Nevada and broadcast as undercard to Canelo Alvarez Vs Julio Cesar Chavez, JR. on HBO PPV.

After thought:

With cloak and dagger mystery surrounding the circumstances of why Gennady Golovkin hasn’t placated his signature on Billy Joe Saunders match for June leaves the flood gates open for Saunders to entertain the idea of defending against Lemieux instead. If Golovkin “is” injured as speculated by promoter Frank Warren last week, will Lemieux’s services be requested again by Alvarez for September shootout?

Stay tuned…

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