Pascal's Promoter: Bute Excuses; Hopkins Offer is Made
By Ryan Songalia
According to Yvon Michel, promoter of WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal, this past week's clash between his charge and the formerly unbeaten Chad Dawson drew in over 8,000 fans to the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.
Impressive, Michel says, considering that many Montreal residents were out of town for Summer vacation and that Dawson missed a scheduled press conference because he misplaced his passport.
As good as those numbers were, they pale in comparison to the potential seen by Michel for an all Canada showdown between Pascal and IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute.
"The Bell Centre can hold 22,000 people, so there will be 22,000 people there that night," Michel says.
Pascal, who defeated Dawson by a unanimous technical decision on Saturday, has a rematch clause with New Haven, CT's "Bad Chad", but is allowed to take another fight before a return bout. HBO is actively pushing for Pascal to face the fellow "Quebecian" Bute next.
While Michel believes that fight would be the biggest fight in Canadian history, he remains doubtful the fight will happen next. Michel says that Interbox Promotions, who promote Bute, is digging for excuses to not make the fight happen.
"This is a fight that HBO would like to buy and Jean Pascal would take that challenge anytime. But now they're looking for reasons not to take the fight. They're saying that Bute is too small. I believe they are very concerned about having their main guy fighting Jean Pascal."
"Honestly, I don't think Bute wants to fight me," Pascal, 26-1 (16 KO), added in agreement. "Right now, I'm the boss in town, I'm the king. I don't need to chase Bute. If he wants to fight the king to prove that he is the king himself, he has to give me a challenge."
Michel believes that Bute's lack of credible opponents at 168 due to the top fighters in the division being included in Showtime's Super Six tournament, coupled with the recent knockout/disqualification win by Bute's new mandatory challenger Jean Paul Mendy to Sakio Bika, will ultimately leave Bute with little options outside of Pascal.
A representative with Interbox could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Michel says that Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaeffer recently contacted him regarding matching former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins, age 45, with the 27-year-old Pascal.
"That would be such a good fight," Pascal said. "Hopkins was the king of that day. He's like a good wine, aging finely."
Other attractive options for Pascal include a rematch with the only fighter to have defeated him - Carl Froch - once his obligations to the Super Six tournament have concluded. Froch
Pascal, who spent the last three months training for his successful HBO debut in Jacksonville, FL, the Dominican Republic and Colombia, will try to spend some time with his daughter before she returns to school in the Fall. He plans to take a week's vacation before entertaining future offers. -RS
Ryan Songalia is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) and a contributor to GMANews.TV. He can be reached at ryan@ryansongalia.com . An archive of his work can be found at www.ryansongalia.com . Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ryansongalia .