Kazakhstan’s Gennady Golovkin respects Canada’s David Lemieux’s power but stated that he’s in a “different class” as a boxer compared with his Canadian opponent. Golovkin and Lemieux will meet next Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Madison Square Garden in New York, with the winner unifying the middleweight division championships.

“Yeah, I think we both have great punch. David [Lemieux] is strong, too. I know my power, so it's not just power, just a little bit different class, you know, boxing class, timing, speed, discipline, and this is very important for us,” Golovkin stated on Thursday in a press conference for the upcoming fight.

Abel Sanchez, Golovkins’ trainer, agreed with his ward showing respect for Lemieux’s capabilities as a puncher but said that the Kazakh fighter is smarter than his opponent inside the ring.

“What he's trying to say is I think he is the fighter in the fight. They both have power and speed and great knockout records, but the IQ, the boxing IQ will be the difference, because I think he thinks that it's a different class, as far as that part of it, and he will be able to get to David, because he will figure him out, but David can punch so it's not like it's going to be an easy fight,” Sanchez said in the same press conference.

Meanwhile, Lemieux promised that he would show more than punching power when he fights Golovkin next Saturday, saying that he has lots of surprises in store against the Kazakh, who is favoured to win the fight.

“It's going to be a hard test in front of me but I'm really not worried and, yes, I do have power, but I'm not going into this fight only with power. I'm going to need all the tools in order to be sharp in a fight of this degree,” Lemieux said. “He's a very good fighter, very smart, but I think I got a lot of surprises to show the world.”

The Golovkin vs. Lemieux fight will be for the World Boxing Association, International Boxing Federation, International Boxing Organization and interim World Boxing Council middleweight titles.

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