Billy Joe Saunders inspired to exquisite victory over David Lemieux by his son before calling out Canelo and GGG

The booing inside the Place Bell in suburban Montreal rarely stopped from the moment Billy Joe Saunders emerged and the moment his wide, brilliant victory over David Lemieux was confirmed by the judges’ scorecards.

But there was one voice in the crowd that Saunders heard above all the racket and it drove him on to the most exquisite win since he turned professional just a few months after the 2008 Olympic Games.

His young son Stevie, aged eight, went viral in September when he punched his dad’s opponent, Willie Monroe Jr, with a low blow when the middleweights weighed in before their fight in London three months ago.

Stevie has been at his dad’s side for the past few weeks in Canada, shadowing his every move and even had his hands wrapped just like Saunders senior before the fight on Saturday night. It was the youngster’s presence that inspired the victory, according to the WBO middleweight champion.

“There was all the booing and the jeering but I could hear my boy there over them all,” Saunders said. “I haven’t seen Stevie or my other children during this camp but I had my boy ringside, I was never going to let him see me lose, ever.

“I made myself pull it out of the bag for him as much as anyone. With him there by the side of me I was never going to lose.”

Victory, which retains his prized strap, also moves him a step closer to a four-belt unification against either Gennady Golovkin or Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.

The two middleweight superstars controversially drew their anticipated first clash in September and a rematch is expected to take place for the IBF, WBA and WBC titles on the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo, which is traditionally one of the key pay-per-view slots on the boxing calendar.

That means Saunders is likely to make a voluntary defence of his own title in April before facing the winner of that rematch in September.

And the undefeated traveller, who was announced in front of the Romani flag, will draw more inspiration from his young son, who already looks like a chip off the old southpaw block.

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“I’m not saying I’m unbeatable but it takes something very special to beat me in front of one of my children,” Saunders said. “When we walked out of the hotel room together before the fight, he said to me ‘dad, are we ready to go and smash this man up today?’

“I said ‘yeah, we’re ready’. I knew we were ready. I knew what I was going to do.”

Indeed Saunders had been promising exactly what he would do throughout the fight week. The 28-year-old, now undefeated in 26 pro fights, had agreed that this was a case of boxer v puncher, his slick skill against Lemieux’s thudding power.

He had also promised that it would not matter how hard Lemieux would punch because he would not be able to catch him. And, after pocketing a career-high payday of £1.5m, he was bang on the money with his prediction.

He danced in and out of range, piercing Lemieux’s guard with his southpaw jab and even had time for a Muhammad Ali shuffle in only the second round. The crowd booed again and continued to do so as Lemieux rapidly ran out of ideas. Incredibly, they even booed eight-year-old Stevie whenever he was shown on the big screen too.

“I didn’t notice them booing him,” Saunders said. “I was in the corner focusing on what Dom [Ingle] was telling me. Listen, I’ve never heard a crowd so against me in my life but I came in the ring singing and I left singing.

“David Lemieux is one of the top middleweights in the world and I made him look stupid. I knew what was going to happen tonight, I knew we’d shut them all up.”

Although calling them out at this point remains futile given the likelihood of their rematch, Saunders was still keen to remind them that he will be lying in wait for the winner, with a renewed confidence after such a stylish performance was shown on primetime HBO across the Atlantic.

“People are saying this win is pound-for-pound material,” said Saunders of the win, which one of three judges scored a 120-108 shutout in his favour. “But it’s only going to get better because there’s so much more to come.

“I’ve had enough of the dog meat now, give me the dog itself. I’m talking about Golovkin and Canelo. They called me out when I was big, fat and 14st. They called me out at that press conference in London and tried to embarrass me. Call me out now, let’s see what happens.”