By Keith Idec

Hassan N’Dam considers David Lemieux “lucky” to be in this position and isn’t concerned about the Canadian contender’s considerable power.

France’s N’Dam (31-1, 18 KOs) has traveled to Lemieux’s native Montreal for a 12-round fight Saturday night at Bell Centre. They’ll compete for the vacant IBF middleweight title, which was stripped from Jermain Taylor in February, in a fight that’ll be televised by FOX Sports 2 and FOX Deportes and via pay-per-view in Canada (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT).

“Everyone’s talking about a hard hitter facing me,” N’Dam said. “But people tend to forget what I’ve done before, when I’ve faced other hard-hitting boxers. One day my skills and talent and my athleticism will be recognized and acknowledged. And then I’ll be on that list [of top middleweights].”

N’Dam fared well against another powerful opponent, Brooklyn’s Curtis Stevens, in his last fight. The former interim WBA and interim WBO middleweight champion withstood Stevens’ power, dropped Stevens (27-5, 20 KOs) in the eighth round and comfortably won a unanimous decision in their 12-round IBF elimination match Oct. 1 in Santa Monica, Calif.

But Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin knocked down N’Dam six times – twice apiece in the fourth, sixth and 12th rounds – in their WBO middleweight title fight in October 2012 in Brooklyn. Quillin couldn’t knock out N’Dam, though, and N’Dam is adamant about the impact taking that fight on less than one month’s notice had on how he struggled during his unanimous-decision defeat to Quillin (31-0-1, 22 KOs).

Regardless, Lemieux (33-2, 31 KOs) suspects N’Dam is underestimating him.

“I think he has no clue who he is going to face on June 20th and that’s just going to be to my advantage,” Lemieux said. “I don’t concern myself with his opinion or what he has to say about who I’ve faced and the challenges that I’ve had in my life or in my career, whatever it is. That’s my own personal issues and I have to prove otherwise. And June 20th will be the day when I will I prove that. So I don’t concern myself with anything. I’m very focused and I’m ready for anything.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.