David Benavidez keeps his perfect record and earns the interim WBC super-middleweight title after stopping David Lemieux in just three rounds.
It was an easy fight for Benavidez, who looked sharp and confident right from the jump. Lemieux struggled to get anything going early on, he was simply outmatched by the Arizona native. Benavidez never gave Lemieux much of a chance to catch him off guard or take advantage of any slip ups, there simply wasn’t any to exploit.
By the end of round one, the fate of the fight was sealed. Benavidez didn’t take too much time calculating and planning before letting his hands go and overwhelming Lemieux, almost sending him home right then and there. Right hands, uppercuts, and well-placed left hooks kept finding Lemieux, and by the third round it was clear that he wasn’t going to escape them if the fight continued.
The second round saw Benavidez vying for the knockout, which he almost got when he caught Lemieux with a nasty uppercut that plunged him to the floor. He ended up beating the count but suffered a cut to his left eye after continuing to get bombarded with hard shots.
Round three didn’t look any better for Lemieux, who continued to get outclassed by Benavidez and felt the full wrath of his speed, power, and relentless punch output, which ultimately caused Lemieux’s corner to step in and stop the fight.
After being asked in the post-fight interviews about Jermall Charlo, Caleb Plant, and David Morrell, Benavidez responded with, “I’m just waiting on those guys to sign the contract.”
