After watching the fight last night , it reminded me a lot of Haye's loss to Carl Thompson . A fighter close to world level , who is not going to fall over. Rubio tucked up and took all the shots on the gloves, come the 7th round I thought David was so tired and out of ideas that a few good shots would take him out , and that is what happend. Sometimes a loss is better and more important than your previous 20 odd wins , David will understand now that body punching is very important , and that head hunting all night can make you look one dimensional. I think he will rebuild from this and come back a stronger , more intelligent fighter and more patient. Correct stoppage and good corner. peace.
Pace yourself, don't headhunt, have a plan B if plan A fails, win rounds on points (which he is plenty capable of doing), work the body relentlessly if the fighter won't drop his gloves, take the fighter out when his resistance has been broken. Watch tapes of old Tyson and Frazier fights. The only thing Lemieux, at the very young age of 22, can't improve is his chin.
Hopefully he doesn't come back a scared fighter or a conservative fighter like ortiz, had the power but doesn't let those hands go.
He'll learn a lot from that loss and no doubt it will make him a better fighter. It was almost identical to what happened to Andy Lee against Vera. When he stepped up against a guy who could withstand the initial onslaught and come on strong. Both were stopped in the same round. It all comes with experience, it was Rubio's experience that won him the fight. He had a perfect game plan whilst Lemieux showcased his inexperience by having no Plan B.
I guess that winning his first 25 fights so easily proved to be bit of a disadvantage to him in this fight. In part, because he was not good enough at pacing himself, and in part because his somewhat unidimensional fightingstyle failed against an opponent that would refuse to fall over (and whom could hit). These are correctable things. And from what I've read, David lost his first four fights as an amateur, so he should be capable of dealing with adversity. I am a bit worried by his chin, though. It certainly didn't seem like it was made from cast iron....
Being only 22 with that kind of power, good boxing fundamentals, there is still, with some work, a bright future in front of him. The thing that is worrisome though is his chin. I am not an expert, just a fan, so correct me if I am wrong, but I think having a good chin might be a good attribute to have if you are a boxer...
I don't think his chin was really an issue. Rubio isn't feather-fisted by any means and David was really tired. It was probably the exhaustion that let him be put away so easily.
I'm glad this thread was made because I didn't really want to start one myself, but people are being way too hard on Lemieux. But that happens when a boxer developes a good fan base and other boxers fans get jealous and start trashing the crowd pleasing fighters. I just watched the fight, and I think Lemieux could very well come back better from this if he has the right attitude and the correct people around him. The first thing I noticed is that he really does have heavy hands (something Rubio later said in the post fight interview), he's explosive and with good speed. The main problem I saw was a lot of inexpirience or maybe overconfidence. But I'm going with the first one. I think he did get too carried away throwing punches without really setting them up (that's why he was reaching, and leaving himself open), he was bouncing around or backwards sometimes which just made him waste energy, he would only feint a charge, but wouldn't really move his head effectively, he didn't go to the body enough and didn't pace himself. I don't think his chin is a huge issue, because he was Tko'd not really ko'd. He also was hurt by Rubio after he was already spent. With better conditioning, experience and technique he can easily avoid being rocked as easily as he was in this fight. Besides, hasn't Rubio been stopped himself multiple times (and I mean KTFO) and now his biggest win is against a proven knock out artist? David has hope, he just needs to learn from this and come back better prepared.
