By Cliff Rold

In the end it was simple equation. 

28-year old World Light Heavyweight Champion Jean Pascal (26-1-1, 16 KO), of Laval, Quebec, kept his title with a majority draw.

A former Middleweight and Light Heavyweight king, the great Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KO), of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, down twice early, won the fight.  He just didn’t have quite enough rounds to earn the decision.  In the long run it won’t matter, as it will be the Hopkins performance remembered years from now, the 45-year old marvel adding yet another dab of shine to his future bust in Canastota Saturday night at the Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. 

Both men weighed in just under the division limit of 175 lbs., Pascal at 174 ¾ and Hopkins at 174 ½.  The referee was Michael Griffin.

Hopkins was already at mid-ring when the opening bell rang, quietly perhaps telling the younger champion that the ring would be his domain.  Pascal, relaxed, circled away from Hopkins to the left, pawing with his jab before letting loose with a measuring right and lead left hook near the end of the first minute.  A Hopkins counter right pushed Pascal off balance and as the opening frame neared the midway mark it was the challenger driving the champion back with his jab and a long right to the body.
 
Hopkins again pushed Pascal to the ropes, landing a short right but taking a counter left hook as Pascal bounced off the strands and moved away.  A long lead left whipped the head of Hopkins back and, moments later, a hard right struck behind the ear of Hopkins, the older man holding on.  With ten second left in the round, Hopkins was caught leaning forward and ate a left hook and right behind the ear from a Pascal leveraging off the ropes.  Hopkins pitched forward, his right arm bracing and perhaps saving him from falling out of the ring as he suffered his first official knockdown since 1994.  Hopkins bounced right up, took the mandatory eight count, complained the blow had landed behind the head, and looked otherwise shocked as he walked back to the corner at the bell.

After an intense opening round, the second saw more missing than landing for both men, Hopkins sneaking in a couple muffled rights, Pascal a few counter lefts and a partially blocked left in the closing seconds.  Punches, thrown or landed, were at a premium through much of a round three spent posturing.  When Pascal did open up, just before the thirty-second mark, he made it count.  A lunging lead right to the body backed Hopkins to the ropes where Pascal added two quick left hooks.  Hopkins hands hit the floor to keep him up, the second suffered knockdown of the night.  Hopkins flurried hard to end the round, adding an unprofessional three punch combination well after the bell that saw him fortunate not to lose another point in the round.

Using short lefts to the body, an educated jab and some well-timed left hooks upstairs, Hopkins controlled much of the first two minutes plus in round four.  Pascal answered with some haymaking rights, landing one over the top near mid-ring to send Hopkins down again but the referee ruled a slip.  Pascal ended the round with a foul rabbit shot to the back of Hopkins’s head in a fight showing signs of growing nastiness.

Pascal was limited only to a few brief bursts of offense in round five as Hopkins began to assert himself fully on the fight, picking his shots and controlling the pace and tempo.  The control remained in the sixth, Pascal moving more than fighting, perhaps wary of the thudding, accumulating body attack of Hopkins.  The assault on the champion grew worse in round seven, Pascal often fleeing or forced into a shell as outlanded and outfought him.

Both men landed big lefts about a minute into the eighth, Hopkins clowning and mugging in front of Pascal after tasting his, angering the younger man into a missing charge.  Pascal promptly returned to the back foot for most of the round, a series of late hooks in a clinch from the champion standing out in a fairly ugly round.

To start the final third of the fight, it was Hopkins looking fresher and arriving first at mid-ring.  It was also Hopkins with a sharp right to the temple of Pascal at a minute in, a left to the body complimenting it.  Another right just past the midway mark sent sweat flying from the head of Pascal.  When the champion attempted to respond, driving Hopkins to the ropes, Hopkins came off the strands and countered him silly.  Pascal landed a nice combination in the closing seconds to keep it honest but the tide soundly favored Hopkins.

Pascal worked hard in the tenth to stem the tide and landed some big rights in the process but not enough to look the winner in the frame.  It was Hopkins still the steadier force, his short, chopping shots tagging Pascal in eye-catching fashion.  In the eleventh, a left to the body visibly hurt Pascal, the younger man holding on tight and continuing to clinch when he wasn’t getting tagged.  A late slip to the floor was ruled just that as Pascal fell out of a clinch, the champion adding a short shots out of the clinch to close a round again.

Both men let it all hang out in the final three minutes, Hopkins for history and Pascal to save his crown.  In a candidate for round of the year, the crowd ecstatic, Pascal used Hopkins’s aggression against him to land the cleaner shots and steal the final frame but it was Hopkins who was the story for being in so memorable a round in the twilight of his career.

The reading of the final scores began with a glimmer of hope for Hopkins at 114-112 but the other two scores disagreed at 113-113 and 114-114 for the draw verdict.  BoxingScene scored the contest 113-113.

For Hopkins it had to feel like déjà vu.  The last time he was down in a fight, Hopkins fell twice against Segundo Mercado in December 1994 only to otherwise outfight his man and earn a draw for the then-vacant IBF Middleweight title.  Hopkins and Mercado would rematch immediately in April 1995 with “The Executioner” stopping Mercado to begin what would be a historic run at Middleweight.  There will be those who fairly wonder whether Hopkins can turn a similar feat in a rematch with Pascal.

Hopkins, understandably, felt he won the fight.  “I had the guy beat up.  He was holding.  I’m the older guy.  Come on man.  That’s not right.  I won every round; they got me winning damn near every round.”  Hopkins voiced disagreement with the knockdown call in the first, feeling he’d been struck in the back of the head.  He also spoke to the home turf advantage for Pascal.  “Most fighters from the States don’t like fighting outside the country.  It’s because of this.  I put up a gallant performance.”

Pascal, as would be expected, also felt he’d done enough to win.  “That wasn’t my best fight but you know, Hopkins likes to fight ugly, dirty.  It’s not that he’s that good, it’s a tough guy to box.”  Pascal didn’t shy from making a rematch and one is well in order.  “If he want a rematch, any time.”   

The card was televised in the U.S. on Showtime, as part of its “Championship Boxing” series, promoted by Yvon Michel and Golden Boy Promotions.

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com