Curtis Stevens (29-6, 21 KOs) took to Twitter on Sunday to give an update to boxing fans to let them know he’s OK following his devastating 3rd round knockout loss to David Lemieux (37-3, 33 KOs) last Saturday night at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, New York. Stevens says he’s fine, and that he just got caught with while exchanging hooks with the 28-year-old Lemieux in the fight. Stevens had to be taken out of the ring with a stretcher. He was reportedly checked out at a hospital close by for observation.
Stevens, 32, was down for a long time after getting hit by a hard left hook from Lemieux in round 3. Stevens didn’t get a chance to defend himself from the shot because he didn’t see it coming. Stevens threw a hook of his own at the same time that Lemieux threw his left hook. Lemieux’s was a shorter hook and thrown with more power.
“Great fight last night. I got caught while reading hooks,” said Stevens on his Twitter. ”His landed first. All good. It’s a part of the game. Congrats to him. I’ll be back. I’m good y’all. I got caught real good. 😩but I’ll be back,” said Stevens.
Hopefully there are no lingering problems for Stevens. It was a really bad knockout for him, as he didn’t see the shot coming, and he took an especially hard punch to the head. Lemieux is one of the biggest punchers in the middleweight division if not the biggest puncher. Stevens used the wrong fight plan to try and defeat Lemieux.
IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin created the blueprint in how to beat Lemieux by staying on the outside and jabbing him continuously for 4 or 5 rounds before opening up with power shots. We didn’t see many jabs from Stevens last Saturday night against Lemieux. Stevens wasn’t jabbing and he was standing directly in front of Lemieux most of the fight. Stevens made his problems even worse by letting Lemieux back him up against the ropes. He wasn’t using his boxing skills at all.
The results of the fight were obvious from the way that Stevens was fighting. You could predict the outcome as soon as the fight started. Stevens was covering up, not throwing punches, and failing to jab. It was the worst possible strategy that Stevens could have used.
For Stevens’ fights in the future, he’s going to need to be a little more clever inside the ring to avoid getting hit so much.