Lemieux vs. N’Dam, Porter vs. Broner, Ward vs. Smith

There are three big fights scheduled for this evening and they all take place in North Amerca, but only one of them features a world title on offer.

That takes place at the globe’s largest Hockey arena, Bell Centre, in boxing-mad Montreal, Canada, where hometown hero David Lemieux faces off against France’s Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam for the vacant IBF middleweight title.

As his record suggests, Lemieux, 33-2 (31), is a genuine slugger, able to gun down rivals with a single shot, but the 26 year old Montreal man can also box a bit and can mount a serviceable defense when necessary.

N’Dam, 31-1 (18), is a stick and move boxer who likes to stay on the outside but is also an emotional fighter who can be drawn into a slugfest, giving this contest against Lemieux a real chance at fireworks.

The Cameroon born visitor holds a height advantage over the local man and is very good at maintaining distance behind the jab, firing off right hands when he gets an opponent out of position as they try to follow him around the ring.

N’Dam has the advantage of having gone 10 rounds or more on 11 occasions, including five instances of the full 12 round distance while Lemieux has gone 10 rounds or more on only three occasions, going 12 rounds only once.

Once the bell rings, expect Lemieux to go for the knockout from the start as he will attempt to close distance behind a triple jab and land the right hand on the way in and the left hook at close quarters.

N’dam will try to counter this with constant circling and right hands over the top of Lemieux’s jabs, disrupting the attack strategy of the local man, who needs to be set in order to drop his bombs.

Both men had excellent showings in their previous bouts, with Lemieux outfighting Gabriel Rosado and N’dam outboxing Curtis Stevens.

If Lemieux can land a big shot early and hurt N’Dam, this should turn into a firefight and that would favor the more compact punching of the local man but if N’Dam can keep his rival at the end of the jab, he should be able to sweep the cards on points.

Crossing the border into America, we find ourselves in the other big Boxing capital of the continent, Las Vegas, Nevada, where ex-world champions Shawn Porter, 25-1-1 (16), and Adrien Broner, 30-1 (22), tangle at a catchweight of 144 pounds.

Former three-weight champ Broner is three victories past his crushing WBA welter title loss against Marcos Maidana but that bout will likely provide the blueprint for Porter, who fights in a similar pressure style to that of Maidana.

Porter himself has come back from his lone career loss, an IBF welter title dethronement at the hands of Kell Brook, when he KO’d a game Eric Bone in five rounds but the Brook contest should give Broner something to aim at repeating.

What this one comes down to will probably be who has the best stamina between Porter and Broner. Porter, who has reduced himself down from a light middleweight, should be the stronger man in the ring as Broner is a former super featherweight who really is a light welter.

That is the reason behind making Porter hit 144 pounds at the weigh-in, which he did yesterday, to conceivably reduce his stamina.

Broner will look to keep Porter at the end of his jab, trying to pick off the Akron man with right hands as he comes in and dodging the big punches Porter will fire before Broner grabs his rival in a clinch.

This approach will likely be exhausting as Broner will have to be on the move constantly and it will be difficult, and energy-sapping, to try and wrestle with Porter during clinches.

Porter will look to get Broner on the ropes early and shake off Broner’s attempts to hold, dishing out a beating as the Cincinnati native isn’t very good on the inside.

If Broner can keep this one at a distance, he should be able to win on points but if it does get on the inside, Porter should prevail, possibly stopping his adversary in the later rounds.

The third fight in our trilogy today takes place at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California and features the re-emergence of WBA super middleweight champ Andre Ward, 27-0 (14), who has been out of the ring for 19 months.

The hometown man faces off against former two-time world title challenger Paul Smith, 35-5 (20), at what was supposed to be a catchweight of 172 pounds, however, Smith was four pounds over that limit, scaling 176 while Ward tipped the beam at 171.8.

This reportedly upset Ward, who branded Smith as unprofessional, and that’s bad news for the visiting British fighter, who already was being given little chance to defeat the top super middleweight in the world.

In his previous two appearances, Smith gave WBO super middle boss Arthur Abraham two competitive fights but tonight faces a whole different level of difficulty when challenging Ward.

The 31 year old Oakland man has won seven straight world title fights, seeing off the likes of world champions Abraham, Mikkel Kessler, Carl Froch, Chad Dawson and Sakio Bika without undue difficulty.

In order to pull off the big upset, Smith will have to pressure Ward and make it a close quarters clash but the Liverpool native operates best as a boxer, not a slugger, and needs distance to operate at the top of his capacity.

But that is exactly what Ward excels at, making it very unlikely Smith can outbox him at range and the Californian is superb at punishing opponents who try to get on the inside.

The only real hope that Smith will have is that Ward will be rusty after so much time off and that the Californian will overlook the former two-time British champion, focusing rather on big fights in his future.

If Smith can go the distance it will be a genuine accomplishment but victory in Oakland is likely much too big of an ask of “The Real Gone Kid”.