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Cloutier’s Canada Corner
Bernard Barré: "Lemieux Will Be
Involved
In A World Championship Fight Next Year"
By Daniel Cloutier
MONTRÉAL - The scout of the GYM Group, Bernard Barré, the
man who has suggested to the promoter Yvon Michel to sign
the young middleweight David Lemieux, is absolutely sure he
took the right decision in 2007.Lemieux was a baby in 2007,
but he is becoming a mature adult. This metamorphosis is
making him a real menace in the ring. Lemieux got only 18
years old when he joined the GYM Group after a very short
amateur boxing career.
He won his first 20 pro bouts by KO or TKO, but he hit a
wall in 2011, from the moment the WBC ranked him in the “Top
five” in the world. Lemieux lost by TKO (7th round) against
the veteran Mexican fighter Marco Antonio Rubio in a WBC
elimination bout, and at his following fight, he lost by
decision against the Montrealer Joachim Alcine, the former
WBA super welterweight champion of the world. In both
fights, Lemieux had wasted all his energy in the first six
rounds in trying to win by KO on each punch.
“The lack of experience, lack of maturity and lack of
strategy, put David in trouble in 2011, when he reached the
major leagues of pro boxing,” said Barré Thursday morning in
a press conference held at the Houston Restaurant of
Square-Victoria in Montréal downtown. “He was just a baby at
that time. But he is becoming a mature adult… and a very
dangerous adult in the ring. I can watch the David's work in
the gym almost every day, and I like more and more of what I
am seeing. The trainer Marc Ramsay is doing an incredible
job to improve David day after day. Since last years, David
is really improved physically, technically and
strategically. In 2007, David was strictly a terrific
puncher. You cannot beat veterans like Rubio and Alcine in
being strictly a puncher. He knows it now. More and more,
David is becoming a boxer... a wise boxer-puncher. More and
more, he is using strategy in the ring to confuse his
opponents, and hurt them at the right moment."
Barré is persuaded that Lemieux will be back soon in the
circle of the stars of the middleweight division. “My
prediction is that David will maintain his progression in
the next months, he will beat fighters of high caliber, he
will get back his place in the Top five in the world, and he
will be involved in a major world championship bout next
year,” said Barré. “He was not ready physically and
strategically to play in the major leagues of boxing in
2011, but watch him in the next months! He will impress a
lot of people around the planet.”
Saturday evening at Bell Centre, before the fights
Dawson-Stevenson and Gamboa-Perez televise by HBO, Lemieux
(28-2-0) will face the Polish Robert Swierzbinski (11-1-0)
in a eight round bout.
The Thursday press conference was concerning the preliminary
bouts of this Grand Prix Boxing show. The heavyweight Didier
Bence (8-0-0), a Montrealer, will face another Montrealer,
Eric Barrak (7-0-0), in a eight rounds fight. “Barrak has
promised to everybody to beat me by KO, but I am waiting him
with all my weapons,” said Bence. “He has a big mouth, but
he will get back on earth during that fight. Bermane
Stiverne will fight for the WBC title very soon, and I will
certainly have my chance in a world championship bout in a
couple of years. Watch me!”
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