The middleweight unification bout between Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin and David Lemieux is heralded as the toughest fight for both fighters. However, GGG's trainer disagrees.
The fight has been trumpeted to be a clash of champion knockout artists, and the belts do not contradict this notion, neither does their record. With a combined 61 knockouts (out of 67 wins between them), it does seem to be a slugfest. The "most feared fighter" agrees.
"[Lemieux] is a dangerous guy and a smart guy," Golovkin told ESPN on the special Making the Rounds last Monday. "I think it's a great fight for us. This is the biggest fight for me and he is the toughest challenge."
However, the notion is not universal. Right in GGG's corner, there is one dissenting opinion.
"I don't think so. I think Curtis Stevens was tougher," Sanchez also told ESPN. "Stevens is more a sharp, short puncher and compact, where Lemieux is a little wide with his shots and is a bit slower. But he is tough."
He continues: "Watching Lemieux, I really don't think he's the kind of puncher that people make him out to be," Sanchez said. "He seems to be real wide and seems to be more of a thudding puncher than a snapping puncher."
The veteran trainer cites examples to elaborate: "[Edwin] Valero was a snapping puncher. Golovkin is a snapping puncher. Ricardo Lopez was a snapping puncher. George Foreman was more of a thudding puncher. But [Lemieux] is still knocking guys out, so he must be doing something right."
Perhaps the comment was not meant to disrespect Lemieux-just to throw him off focus. Trainers have been trash talking their fighters' opponents for decades, while the boxers always give safe answers.
Former undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins will have none of that, though. He declares that the GGG-Lemieux fight is the real deal.
"When you have the knockout [ability] that both of these fighters [possess], you don't have time to go get your popcorn," Hopkins told Bleacher Report.
"This is really surreal. Unfortunately we don't have these types of events where we can say one guy is going to represent that [middleweight] division. Now we have that."