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Spike O’Sullivan involved in online slagging match with former middleweight champ


Spike O’Sullivan [26(18)-2(1)] has locked on to his newest target and the Twitter hostilities have already started.

The Cork middleweight, famous for his online call-outs, scored a high-profile win last month on a Golden Boy on ESPN card in Boston and now wants one of the outfit’s biggest stars.

O’Sullivan revealed after his fourth round stoppage win over Nick Quigley that he had received an offer of a three-fight from the Oscar De La Hoya-led company beforehand but had turned it down. The Leesider’s reasoning was that a good performance versus Quigley, which he duly delivered, would tempt Golden Boy into an even more lucrative offer.

The Mahon 33 year old had initially hoped to face WBO light middleweight champion Miguel Cotto in the Puerto Rican’s swansong bout in New York at the end of the year. However, with Cotto now facing Sadam Ali at Madison Square Garden on Saturday December 2nd, O’Sullivan has switched his attentions elsewhere.

Over the last few days O’Sullivan has been goading former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux [38(33)-3(2)] on Twitter.

The Canadian is mandatory challenger to WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders, who defeated O’Sullivan back in 2015, however the Irishman hopes to squeeze in if a world title fight cannot be made.

Faced with a barrage of messages from O’Sullivan and his large support, Lemieux responded this evening.

Of course, Spike had his answer ready within minutes.

Before being mandated to fight Saunders, Lemieux had hinted at a December 2nd date – presumably on the Cotto-Ali undercard.

While the 28 year old will be targeting Saunders – who presumably wants to defend his belt, the only piece of the middleweight crown not held by Gennady Golovkin – a fight with O’Sullivan could be a good back-up for December.

Lemieux is on a four-fight win streak since losing in a unification with Golovkin. In this time he has stopped Glen Tapia and Curtis Stevens, while outpointing Cristian Rios and Marcos Reyes.

Photo Credit: Ricardo Guglielminotti – The Fighting Irish (@ThefIrish)

Joe O'Neill

Reporting on Irish boxing the past five years. Work has appeared on irish-boxing.com, Boxing News, the42.ie, and local and national media. Provide live ringside updates, occasional interviews, and special features on the future of Irish boxing. email: joneill6@tcd.ie

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