By Luke Furman

Last Saturday night in Canada, former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux came up short to capture gold when he was dominated over twelve rounds by Billy Joe Saunders, who holds the WBO middleweight championship.

After that contest, Lemieux and his co-promoter, Camille Estephan, complained - that in their opinion - Saunders had no intention of fighting and just wanted to move around the ring for twelve rounds.

Lemieux will go back to the drawing board, and plans to return very soon after he finishes rehabbing a shoulder and hand injury.

Although they tasted defeat, Estephan feels confident that his boxer will be right back on HBO's airwaves and likely before Saunders gets a chance to return back on the network.

"HBO is always behind us at 100%. They realized very quickly that the guy [Saunders], without taking away any credit, did not want to fight. Erislandy Lara did that [exact fight strategy] against Canelo [in 2014] and we never saw him on [HBO's] airwaves again. And yet Canelo had beaten him by a single thread. [The people at HBO], they are looking for action, entertainment. We are already in discussion with HBO. We're going to let the holiday season pass, we'll see what happens with his shoulder, but I'm sure his next fight will be on HBO," Estephan told La Presse

"I think Saunders has a place. He was very impressive, his footwork is amazing. But will HBO want to see it? Because it is [not that entertaining] to see."

Head trainer Marc Ramsey wants to correct any and all mistakes from the last fight and have his boxer come back even stronger in the next outing.

"We must also be critical of ourselves. After the victories, we tend to receive flattery from people and there is a danger to be on the autopilot in this kind thing. What is important is to be very realistic, not to get stuck, to know who we are, where we come from and where we are going. When we look at David Lemieux's past, the psychological profile is in place to overcome the larger mountains. I still believe he has everything he needs to go back," Ramsey said.

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.