Hassan N'Dam feeling loose, confident ahead of IBF middleweight title bout with David Lemieux

Hassan N'Dam has the deck stacked against him: partial judges, a referee that's notorious for favoring local stars and a crowd that badly wants him to lose.

He's not happy with what he perceives to be home cooking for opponent David Lemieux, but he's confident that he will once again own a piece of the middleweight crown. The two square off Saturday (Fox Sports 2, 10 p.m. ET) in Lemieux's backyard of Montreal at the Bell Centre with the vacant IBF middleweight title on the line.

"People say he's a puncher, they say he's a knockout guy," N'Dam (31-1, 18 KOs) told Paste BN Sports during a phone interview. "… Maybe he will not touch me. I'm coming to box. I'm boxer, I come to fight."

"I was world champion, I want to be world champion again. My goal is Triple G, it's not David Lemieux. David Lemieux is only the way to Triple G. That's why I'm working hard for this fight. I'm working harder than (I did) for Curtis Stevens."

N'Dam earned the right to fight for the title after wiping out Stevens in a final eliminator on ESPN2 in October. The win was good preparation for Lemieux: Stevens is also a big puncher with questionable defense. N'Dam was able to dictate the pace with his great athleticism, rangy jab and deft movement. And it's notable that N'Dam called out boxing's boogeyman, Gennady Golovkin, a man few people want to face.

N'Dam's manager, Gary Hyde, is understandably furious about having no neutral judges and referee as well, but is confident his guy will go in there and take the belt home to France. After all, Lemieux lost consecutive fights at the same arena to far lesser fighters than N'Dam.

"David Lemieux, they say he can punch, of course he can punch, but (N'Dam) is not going to be standing in front of him," Hyde said. "(Lemieux is) a bull in a china shop. He can run all night and he can beat you up like a bully, but if you make him miss and you come back and you punish him, he doesn't want it. He begged his corner to rescue him against (Marco Antonio) Rubio. … You can't put heart into somebody, and he's go no heart. He's got a big punch, that's it."

Lemieux (33-2, 31 KOs) is indeed one of the biggest punchers in the game, but his career went stagnant after the two losses. He was stopped by Rubio in 2011 in a major upset, then dropped a decision to Joachim Alcine later that year. Since then, he built himself back up with a bunch of wins over modest opposition, then made his HBO debut in December with a shellacking of Gabe Rosado, his first fight with Golden Boy.

N'Dam never made a successful defense of his WBO middleweight title. He says had an injury to his teeth for his six-knockdown decision loss to Peter Quillin in 2011, and that he only accepted the fight because he was told he would be stripped of the title. The Cameroon native says if he wins the belt Saturday, he won't give Quillin a rematch unless Quillin gets a title, too.

"Never. You know why?" N'Dam asked. "Not because he's a good boxer. I'm a man, I want Triple G because he's the best middleweight fighter. I'm the only man that can beat him. But Quillin, I don't want to give him a chance because he don't give me my rematch. I signed a rematch clause, he don't want to give me the chance to do the rematch."

N'Dam believes he won all the rounds that he wasn't dropped in, and many observers agree with him. The other titleholder in the division is Andy Lee, who is set to defend against Billy Joe Saunders in September. N'Dam topped Lee in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and would love to unify if they're both champions later this year. Golovkin also competed in Athens, but N'Dam and GGG never met.

The 31-year-old left a lot of money on the table after allowing the Lemieux fight to go to a purse bid. N'Dam will make just $51,000 (plus $25,000 for training expenses) for this bout, half of the winning bid of $102,000, but was slated to bring in a whole lot more. There was a deal for N'Dam to take home $300,000 plus $100,000 from the French TV rights and another $25,000 for training, but Hyde says that deal was left on the table.

"After he gets his world title, he goes back to France and he parades himself around like the superstar that he is and then we'll see what's out there," Hyde said. " … Of course Hassan wants Golovkin."

N'Dam is in hostile territory, but is relaxed ahead of the big fight. After all, he has fought since he was 6 years old.

"I think Lemieux has more pressure than me because he's at home," N'Dam said. "I don't have no pressure. I'm here to show the people my style."