David Lemieux has been through a lot of changes in the past 18 months both in and out of the ring but all of them are for the better.
The middleweight boxer said he is aiming to return to championship form by making drastic modifications to his life, including not showing up at the gym with coffee in hand.
"I leave the coffee in the car now! But I'm a lot more focused. Every day I'm in the gym, I'm training twice a day," said Lemieux.
On his way to the WBC International Middleweight Championship in 2010 Lemieux racked up 25 wins and never lost a fight.
Then he faced Marco Rubio who pummelled so badly his coach refused to let Lemieux fight past the 7th round.
One year ago Lemieux faced comeback pugilist Joachim Alcine, who controlled Lemieux throughout the bout to win a decisive victory.
Since then trainer Marc Ramsay has been working Lemieux work to regain his form.
"He's older but also to be in the gym every day with guys like Pascal and all the group in the gym, he follows a couple of examples, and I think he's a more major boxer right now," said Tremblay.
Lemieux still has a solid pu nch, but has learned that at the upper echelons of the sport a boxer can't depend on one hard hit to win a fight.
"We're working hard. We're building a solid base to be prepared for the 12-round fights against the elite fighters," said Lemieux.
"I love the knockout. I'm a powerful puncher, as you can see. I'm strong with both hands. Whichever hand I land properly and I have a good timing on it, it might be the last he sees. So I'm training hard. I'm training still in a lot of explosive ways, but we're building up a solid 12-round David Lemieux fighter."
Adding endurance while preserving the powerful punches, Lemieux is eager for his next bout, his third this year, when he co-anchors the Fast and the Furious gala at the Bell Centre on Dec. 14.
