Lemieux, Saunders engage in war of words before their middleweight title fight on Saturday

For two guys who hail from different countries, and who never really knew each other, David Lemieux and Billy Joe Saunders have built up a nice little discourse of dislike  heading into their middleweight title fight on Saturday night in Laval, Quebec.

Lemieux, 28, a former IBF middleweight titlist from Montreal, and Saunders, also 28, from the United Kingdom, will fight for Saunders' WBO middleweight title belt on HBO (9:40 p.m. ET).

Lemieux (38-3, 33 KOs) is a noted knockout artist who promises to hurt Saunders (25-0, 12 KOs) in the ring. And he has the power to do it.

“I’m going to be so powerful in there," Lemieux said. "It’s going to be dangerous for his health.”

Saunders is more boxer than puncher, and almost certainly is not going to make it easy for Lemieux to hit him.

Saunders has chided Lemieux for his knockout loss to Gennady Golovkin in 2015, saying Lemieux went way out of his class to fight Golovkin.

"When you mix him up against the very, very best of the league, he's not quite comfortable. He didn't win a round against Golovkin," Saunders said.

"David is a good fighter . . . but some boxers are not quite enough to be at that elite level. And David, you're not quite good enough. Am I good enough? We'll soon see. In my own mind, I know I can deal with it, and then with Golovkin or Canelo (Alvarez), we'll see where I really am."

Lemieux claims he's not the same guy who suffered an eighth-round knockout in a bloody affair against Golovkin at Madison Square Garden.

"I'm a whole different guy than I was facing Golovkin. I'm a whole different guy," Lemieux said. "You put Golovkin back in front of me, and it's going to be a whole different scenario. Now I've got Saunders to take care of. We've done everything we need to do in camp. I don't think it's going to be very difficult in the ring against him.

"I'm going to make him pay in the ring. All this animosity is going to come out in the ring. If he thinks he can run away for 12 rounds, he's in a lot of trouble."

 Saunders hails from the Travelers community in the U.K., which is better known as gypsies. In fact Saunders won his middleweight title in December 2015 from another Traveler, Andy Lee, also from the U.K. The Traveler community is not very well like in the U.K., and Lemieux has said he's had many letters from fans in the U.K. urging him to knock Saunders out.

Despite having never fought outside of the U.K. as a professional, Saunders says coming to Canada to fight in Lemieux's back yard is not a problem.

"I go to enemy territory all the time. Where I'm from, when I boxed Andy Lee, it was the biggest feud among possible gypsy culture, English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh all there in one mixture," he said. "Most of them there for Andy Lee.

"I perform under pressure. I've seen David's absolute best performance against Gennady Golovkin. I think David is very weak in the mind. . . . I'm quite happy to know I'm under his skin because, if he wants to play a boxing match, then bring a blindfold, and I'll put it on, and I'll beat him. That's how confident I am."

Saunders has even offered part of his purse if he loses his title belt.

"I'm willing to bet part of my purse to charity if I lose and the winner will choose which charity to give it to," Saunders said. "I'm not here for the money or anything like that, I'm here to make a statement."

Saunders even said he would  give his entire purse to Lemieux if he gets knocked out.

"That's one thing I'll promise you, my chin will definitely hold up," he said. "If it don't, you can have my purse. How about that? No problem."

Lemieux said he will keep that in mind come fight night.

"Let's see for how long you will be able to back up those words and put them together again this Saturday," he said Thursday. "I'm well aware of your abilities, I hope you are aware of mine. I'm not just a puncher. People like to see blood and big punches, and that's what they'll see on Saturday."