Lemieux can't make 160 anymore, so I assume it would be a catchweight. If not, O'Sullivan would beat a badly weight drained Lemieux.
Have a feeling that the loser of this fight between GGG and Clenelo will find himself regularly fighting on the other mans undercards. And the Spike v. Lemieux winner is a good "rebound" bout.
Very unlikely. I doubt either GGG nor Canelo would ever need to be on each others undercard or anyone elses for that matter. They are too popular to not be the main event.
I agree with your assessment of Spike. However, I think he’s a better “catcher” than Lemieux seems to be. If Spike’s chin can hold up AND he maintains his hunger to WIN the fight, I believe Lemieux will succumb late. If not, then I look forward to the highlight reel KO, ala the type administered to the self proclaimed, always delusional, “Cerebral Assassin.”
This is terrible for Spike. He went from spending months in the Big Fight Sweepstakes, his name attached to both GGG's and Canelo's at various points, to now facing a middleweight that is equally as much a threat given styles despite being half as talented as either of those A-listers, whilst being half as lucrative a dance partner. His team should have stayed the course and kept him on safe tuneups until he was revisited by a big name at MW, because his name has been associated with those elites for long enough now that even the loudest grumbling naysayers will feel it has become somewhat normalized to where he could be more readily accepted in such a match-up than he deserves on merit. He went from being in a GREAT position to where he just needed to bide his time until circumstances & politics conspired to once again make him the "best consolation prize" for a big name elite (thus netting him the payday all this has been setting table for) to being in a lose-lose situation. If he gets destroyed by Lemieux, bye-bye momentum and name value. If he beats Lemieux in a tough battle of attrition, well he just shaved years off his prime for peanuts, relatively.
The only really net-positive outcome for Spike would be if he iced Lemieux early, and that is such a slim percentage chance of happening (Spike is heavy-handed but not really a single blow KO artist, while Lemieux has a well above-average chin) A year ago Spike was obscure. Now he's "that guy whose name was linked recently to GGG's/Canelo's/Jacobs/a BJS rematch" (which subconsciously makes him seem a bit more palatable even to harsh skeptics of his abilities) - and losing to Lemieux or going life and death with him will either put him into the "drastically lowered stock" category (worse than merely obscure), else "damaged goods". Murphy's Boxing really screwed the pooch here.
