Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan accepts offer to face David Lemieux

Boxingnews24.com

By Jeff Aranow

Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan has finally accepted a fight against former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux for the undercard of Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin 2 rematch on September 15 on HBO PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It’s unclear whether O’Sullivan vs. Lemieux will be the co-feature bout on the Canelo-GGG 2 card. WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia (30-0, 25 Kos) was thought to be in the co-feature bout against an opponent still to be determined. Munguia is an unbeaten fighter with a future.

Lemieux and O’Sullivan aren’t world champions and they’ll likely not achieve that status in the remainder of their careers. Munguia is arguably a better fighter than Lemieux and O’Sullivan. However, O’Sullivan has a shot at fighting Canelo in his next fight, so that’s why he’ll get the co-feature fight. Lemieux can act as a spoiler if he defeats O’Sullivan on September 15.

Lemieux (39-4, 33 KOs) has been after a fight against the 34-year-old O’Sullivan (28-2, 21 KOs) for a long time, but he’s never had any luck in getting the Irish fighter to agree to facing him until now. Lemieux is obviously happy, because he’s traditionally done incredibly well against stationary fighters like O’Sullivan.

” David Lemieux, challenge accepted. Be careful what you wish for!”O’Sullivan said via irishboxing.com.

This is a very risky fight for the Golden Boy promoted O’Sullivan. If he loses to Lemieux, he can kiss goodbye a big money fight against Canelo Alvarez. O’Sullivan is expected to be Canelo’s fight after his rematch with Golovkin on September 15. Whether Canelo wins or loses to GGG, he’ll likely be facing O’Sullivan. But that could change if O’Sullivan loses to Lemieux.

If O’Sullivan gets beaten by Lemieux, he’ll need to be put back on the rebuilding circuit to bring him back from the loss. If it’s an embarrassing knockout loss for O’Sullivan like the 7th round knockout he suffered against Chris Eubank Jr. in 2015, then it could take as many as much as three years before he’s ready to be put in with Canelo. O’Sullivan has a six-fight winning streak since his loss to Eubank Jr. However, O’Sullivan’s wins have come against little more than weak opposition but it’s still taken him three years to get back to where he is now. O’Sullivan’s victories have come against these fighters:

– Berlin Abreu

– Antoine Douglas

– Nick Quigley

– Chauncey Fields

– Ronald Montes

– Jamie Barbonza

O’Sullivan has been matched carefully by his management, which is sad but obviously the reality. He had the chance to fight Gennady Golovkin for his three titles last May, but he chose not to take the fight due to the money not being enough for him. Obviously O’Sullivan is thinking of the big payday that he’ll receive when he faces Canel Alvarez in 2018. That fight will give him a huge payday, but there won’t likely be a title on the line because Canelo isn’t a world champion and likely won’t be a world champion sill after he aces GGF in their rematch on September 15.

Earlier this week, Lemieux said this on his social media site in calling out O’Sullivan:

O’Sullivan, let’s go. Stop chickening out, the fight to be is you versus me Lemieux versus O’Sullivan, so let’s do it. Undercard of Canelo-Golovkin in September let’s go, are you ready to fight me? I’m here, let’s do this.”

One gets the sense that O’Sullivan didn’t really want to take the fight with Lemieux, because he surely would have agreed to the fight a long time ago if he wanted to face him. From O’Sullivan’s standpoint, you can understand why he wouldn’t want to take a risky fight against someone like Lemieux. O’Sullivan doesn’t have the greatest chin in the world, and he’s never beaten a high caliber fighter before during his 10-year-old pro career.

Besides the Lemieux vs. O’Sullivan fight, former pound-for-pound No.1 Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez will be fighting on the undercard against an opponent still to be determined, as well as female world champion Cecilia Braekhus.

“I was enjoying a nice holiday don’t feel the need to rush into prep for you Mr. Lemule! I won’t take long to knock you out 👊😴” O’Sullivan said.

Lemieux can turn his career around with a victory over O’Sullivan. Lemieux lost to WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss last December in Canada. It was such a one-sided loss that it hurt Lemieux’s career. Lemieux came back from that loss to defeat Karim Achour by a 12 round unanimous decision last May. However, Lemieux failed to make the 160 pound limit. He came in two pounds over the limit at 162. Additionally, Lemieux’s opponent was so bad that it didn’t do anything for his career. If Lemieux can beat O’Sullivan, it would be a big enough victory to help his career and perhaps earn him a fight against Canelo. Instead of O’Sullivan getting the nice payday against Canelo, it could wind up being Lemieux.

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