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Lemieux: Rocky Fielding is an easy fight for Canelo

The middleweight slugger doesn’t even pretend to be impressed by Canelo’s choice of opponent.

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Wil Esco is an assistant editor of Bad Left Hook and has been covering boxing for SB Nation since 2014.

Ahead of his fight this weekend against Tureano Johnson, David Lemieux takes some time to talk about the fight and the card’s main event between Canelo Alvarez and Rocky Fielding...

Lemieux on how he views his fight with Johnson based on their respective experience:

“I think that I’m more experienced than him and I’ve fought 100x better opponents than he has. I’m gonna come in on Saturday, do what I gotta do, do what I do best, take care of business.”

On the quick turnaround from knocking out ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan in September to this outing:

“I wanna get knockout of the year...let’s see this weekend, maybe I can top [my last one]. But I respect Johnson, he’s a good fighter, but business is business in the ring. I’m going for his head.

On how he thinks the fight will play out:

“You know, we’ve studied him very well so he’s a guy who switches [stance] often. He’s gonna try to cause something different, but he’s a guy who his best style of fighting, he comes forward and he comes to fight so [that’s perfect for me]. But I don’t see him running away. He said he’s gonna run away but I think he’s just playing games. If I gotta chase, I’ll chase. If I gotta brawl, I’ll brawl. No problem. I have no problem with nothing.”

On being thought to be of the favorites to face Canelo next and if he’s gotten any indication that he will if he wins this weekend:

“That was the hope the last fight...but that didn’t happen for this fight. We’ll see after this weekend, hopefully they’ll wanna fight, I think it would be a great match up. Wait til you see what I do on Saturday and then the fans I guess will demand it.”

On who he thought won Canelo-Golovkin 2:

“Canelo won it. He was landing the clearer shots, he was landing the majority of the rounds. I give it to Canelo. The first fight was debatable but the second fight, Canelo won the fight — I believe, from what I saw. But I’m not a judge, I’m a fighter.”

On what he thinks of Canelo moving up to 168 for this fight:

“It’s a big step. I think he’s a little small for super middleweight but it can be interesting. We’ll see how he does against Rocky, I don’t think Rocky is a very dangerous opponent but, you know, he is a big boy. Canelo’s a big middleweight but a small super middleweight.”

On if he’s worried, as a potential Canelo opponent, that Canelo could take some damage moving up for this outing:

“No, there’s no worries. Fielding is not a dangerous fighter, they know what they’re doing. But it’s gonna be interesting how he takes care of business. I don’t think he’s gonna have a problem with Fielding. I think it’s gonna be a pretty easy fight for Canelo.”

On how he thinks his power compares with Canelo:

“I’m the most powerful middleweight out there. Punch for punch, I’m the hardest puncher out there. There’s no other middleweight that can punch like me. You guys will see on Saturday, I’ve been improving a lot my game, a lot of things have been different. I’m feeling better than ever. Before I had injuries for certain fights so I couldn’t look my best but those things are in the past now and on Saturday I’m gonna be at my best.”

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