Billy Joe Saunders challenges Gennady Golovkin after defeating David Lemieux

Image: Billy Joe Saunders took his record to 26-0 with victory over David Lemieux

Billy Joe Saunders challenged Gennady Golovkin to a middleweight unification bout after making a successful defence of his WBO title on Saturday as he out-classed David Lemieux in Canada.

The British fighter controlled the bout from start to finish as he defended his title by unanimous decision at Place Bell in Quebec, winning 120-108, 117-111, 118-110 on the judges' scorecards.

It was a fourth defeat for Lemieux, who had won each of his four fights since being stopped by unified middleweight champion Golovkin in 2015.

After the fight, Saunders called out Golovkin and insisted he can become the first man to defeat the Kazakh knockout specialist.

"Golovkin, you kept saying you want my WBO belt when I was 14 stone, out of shape and wasn't in love with boxing," he said in an interview shown on BT Sport.

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Image: Saunders says he wants to face Gennady Golovkin in his next fight

"Then you wanted to fight me. Fight me now. Now fight me, cos we'll be seeing a different story. You'll be punching fresh air."

Lemieux's first clean punch of the fight came in round three but it was not enough to stop Saunders, who retaliated with a combination uppercut in the fourth.

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By the fifth, Saunders began taunting his opponent for his misses, drawing boos from the crowd, but went on to land the better shots.

The masterclass continued into the seventh when Lemieux left the round bloody and hurt and with little answer to Saunders' jabs and footwork.

Saunders, who has already defended the belt twice since winning it from Ireland's Andy Lee in 2015, dominated the later rounds to take his record to 26-0.

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