By James Slater: Last night in Canada, unbeaten middleweight sensation David Lemieux kept his unbeaten record with a devastating 1st-round destruction of the talented Hector Camacho Junior. The hard-hitting 21-year-old super prospect badly hurt the 32-year-old southpaw with a big right hand midway through the opening round of the scheduled 12-rounder, and then Lemieux put Camacho Junior down hard with another vicious right hand to the head. Camacho Junior looked to be totally out before he hit the mat.
The official time of the KO was three-minutes of the 1st, and Lemieux is now 24-0(23), Camacho Junior, who may have nowhere to go but retirement, is now 52-4-1(28). Camacho Jr. has been stopped before, by Andrey Tsurkan in 2006 (an 8th-round TKO loss), but never has anyone hammered him so brutally as Lemieux did last night.
The man from Montreal, who retained his WBC international title last night, really is causing excitement in the middleweight division. Now the winner of a staggering 20 KO’s that have come in two rounds or less, the hot prospect is being looked at by many good judges as a future world ruler. Only one man has thus far managed to take him the distance (Jason Naugler, who went ten-rounds with him in February of this year), with all Lemieux’s other foes being starched in quick fashion.
Of course, as wickedly powerful and fast as he is, there are still question marks surrounding Lemieux: can he take a hard shot himself, will his power take care of the elite of the 160-pound division? Last night, Camacho Junior figured to ask Lemieux at least a couple of questions. With his quick hands and overall boxing skill, “Baby Macho” was expected to give the 21-year-old some problems. Instead, the older man who had won his previous nine fights, was not given the chance to do anything.
Camacho Jr. was so badly dazed and hurt, he had to be told the fight was over after he’d finally regained his senses on his ring stool (shades of Tommy Morrison, after his brutal loss to Ray Mercer all those years ago). Anytime the fans can pay to see a fighter who hits like that, they are excited!
Lemiuex, arguably the most thrilling up-and-comer since the young Mike Tyson, at least in terms of hitting power, now needs to take another step up in class. For though he’s barely into his twenties, Lemiuex can no longer be expected to be in any way tested by the Hector Camacho Juniors, Elvin Ayalas or Walid Smitchets of the world.