When Derek Pomerleau was 7 years old, he watched on Canadian pay-per-view as Lucian Bute became world champion for the first time.

As Bute’s name was announced the winner and declared the new IBF super middleweight champion after defeating Alejandro Berrio, he slumped emotionally into the arms of his trainer, Stephan Larouche, as tens of thousands of Quebecois fans inside Bell Centre and many more across the province like Pomerleau erupted in pride as their newest hero was cemented in history, taking the mantle from the beloved Eric Lucas.

Pomerleau could have never known that he would follow the same path as Bute years later, but he sure dreamt of it. A few years earlier, he’d discovered the sport of boxing when his father, Steve, showed him “Rocky IV,” and it wouldn’t be long before he laced up his first pair of gloves and started whacking his first heavy bag, which in this case was the family refrigerator. Just like the character that initially inspired him, Pomerleau’s dreams were at once gargantuan and modest.

Just as Rocky Balboa dreamt of being champion but mainly, to just go the distance, and be able to provide a modest living for himself and his wife. Pomerleau too wanted to be champion, but also just wanted to get inside the doors of the Bell Centre one day, even as a spectator.

Eighteen years later to the day of Bute’s win over Berrio, Pomerleau found himself across the world in Riyadh, winning a fight that put him one step away from a world ranking, enough money to buy tickets to any event at the home of Les Canadiens, and a step closer to having enough cache to be the next of his boxing-rabid province’s big arena headliners.

On Saturday night, Pomerleau punched his ticket to the middleweight finals of the WBC Boxing Grand Prix – the 128-fighter, four-division prospect tournament being held in Saudi Arabia – by defeating Colombia’s Carlos Sinisterra by majority decision.

Pomerleau grew up to be trained by Larouche, as well as longtime Canadian national team coach Danielle Bouchard, the same tandem that recently led Kim Clavel back to a world title at minimumweight a few weeks ago. When Pomerleau was a teenager, Larouche saw an amateur whom he said boxed not just beautifully, but artistically.

Few, if any, fighters in the Grand Prix have generated as much praise and intrigue as Pomerleau, whose four victories thus far have been exciting in decidedly different ways.

In the opening stage of the tournament in April, he turned in a dazzling back-foot boxing performance in a unanimous-decision win over Ukraine’s Liparit Ustian. In the second stage, he got off the canvas to score a sensational knockout win over Ireland’s World Amateur Bronze medalist Paul Ryan. In the quarterfinals, a more aggressive Pomerleau sparked Ukraine’s Dmytro Rybalko, a former member of the Ukrainian national team, in the second round.

Against Sinisterra, Pomerleau encountered a dangerous but patient counterpuncher with whom his dynamic movements couldn’t open up, so he had to grind out a six-round majority decision in a high-level scientific fight.

“We’ve seen four different Derek Pomerleaus in the tournament thus far,” Larouche said. “I’m glad that in this fight that he put a little part of everything in him (into winning). He couldn’t stay in the ropes with a guy like this, he couldn’t stay in front of him after he throws combination, and he couldn’t rely on his power only. I knew that a tournament like this is also kind of an experience to build what we call the toolbox.

“He needed that type of adversity and also that good performance that he delivered to end up being a more confident fighter, a more complete fighter, and when the tournament will be over, we’re gonna have a Derek Pomerleau that will have grown up in the tournament. Derek’s already a better fighter than early in the tournament.”

Based on his resume coming into the tournament, Pomerleau’s dominance is perhaps not entirely surprising. His devastating knockout victory over longtime contender Marcelo Coceres in 2024 is likely the best win any fighter in the Grand Prix had on their resume at the outset. Five months later, he followed it up with a one-sided stoppage win over Nathan McIntosh in a bout that co-headlined a Matchroom event in Gatineau, Quebec aired on DAZN.

From the outside looking in, a fighter who at that specific point arguably had the same career-best win as Diego Pacheco and had a co-feature on DAZN in his back pocket might have sounded overqualified for what was touted as a tournament for prospects.

“The Coceres performance, that’s the one I'm most proud of, because I was jumping up in weight, I was taking on someone with a lot of experience, too,” Pomerleau said. “But now, it’s my time. I’ve been in the gym since I was really, really young, and I always saw myself climbing the rankings. I feel like I have good talent and I’m dedicated to my sport. I’m not surprised, but at the same time I’m so excited. It’s a great satisfaction.”

However, Pomerleau and Larouche were humble enough to admit that not only was additional seasoning necessary before jumping into the contention pool, but the tournament could satisfy other wishes they had as well, namely activity and exposure.

Though Pomerleau fought four times in 2024, his immediate future was uncertain. Much like many of the other fighters who were chosen for the tournament, he was hitting his head on the ceiling of what he could achieve domestically, both in terms of opposition, but also opportunity.

Though the aforementioned McIntosh fight did eventually happen, there was reported uncertainty all the way up until the week of the fight as to whether New Era Promotions, with which Pomerleau was signed, would prevent the bout from happening.

“Derek had to struggle from early on,” Larouche said. “He didn’t have that many fights, fights were canceled, injuries here and there, so we had no rhythm. So, when we saw that tournament coming, you’re right that we had some good wins just before that on big platform, but he should have had more momentum, and he didn’t get it. You know, it was always five, four, five, six months, and a fight, three months, a fight. And today, [Turki Alalshikh and the WBC] are going to make him the most active fighter in Canada.”

Because of the tournament’s pacing, Pomerleau has essentially either been in camp or actively fighting since December of last year. As Canadian journalist Manny Montreal, who has covered Pomerleau throughout his career, recently joked, Pomerleau “didn’t have any trips to Cancun, not even any time for after parties after fights.”

For a fighter who once had to supplement his career in the most Canadian way possible, working at the Labatt beer plant, no matter how hard the work is, the ability to singularly focus is a gift.

“You have to be fully dedicated to the sport, you can’t do both," Pomerleau said with a laugh. “I’m training full-time now. I was living on the South Shore, but now I moved into Montreal, where I’m two minutes from the gym. I’m almost sleeping at the gym, and I’m always with Stephan and my brother. We’re working hard, but we’re having fun. If I wasn’t having fun, I wouldn’t do it, but it’s a beautiful sport and I’m so glad to be a part of it.”

Pomerleau will meet Australia’s Dylan Biggs in the finals of the tournament December 20 in Riyadh, a matchup that he claims he saw coming. As the two were warming up in the same area in April before their opening-round matchups, Pomerleau spotted Biggs and says he wishes he’d gone up to him and told him they would meet in the finals.

His premonition came true, and the winner will receive a $200,000 prize and become the mandatory challenger for the WBC’s silver title. That would place Pomerleau roughly in the position Bute was in months before beating Berrio, when he defeated Sakio Bika in a title eliminator at Bell Centre.

Though he might not be filling those seats yet, there would appear to be an organic groundswell of support growing for him in his home province. On Sunday morning, over 300 people arrived at Larouche’s gym to watch Pomerleau’s fight on a big screen, and more had to be turned away at the door.

“He’s completely passionate, he’s dedicated, and he’s also, he’s touching people, you know?,” Larouche said. “You cannot ask a fighter to have charisma. You cannot force people to have charisma. You’re born with that [expletive], and Derek is born with charisma and people realize it now. Everywhere he walks, people look at him, they remember him, they notice him. And that’s what Lucien Bute was. And Eric Lucas was like that, too, and even Stéphane Oullet was like that.

“Since then, we haven’t seen a product from Quebec for a long [expletive] time with skills like this, and happiness in the ring, happy to deliver an exciting performance. I think he could be the next guy who could fill the Bell Centre in Montreal if everything keeps going well like this.”

Pomerleau is sitting beside his coach as he hears this, smiling.

“My literal dream is to fill up the Bell Centre one day, just like Georges St-Pierre,” Pomerleau said of the former UFC star. “GSP filled up the Bell Centre by himself, and I want to do the same but for boxing.”