By Luke Furman
After most people counted him out, Canadian star Jean Pascal is now back in the mix of the light heavyweight division.
This past Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Pascal dropped undefeated Marcus Browne three times to win an eight round technical decision - which allowed him to capture the WBA interim-title.
Pascal, who the oddsmakers saw as a heavy underdog, was a former WBC world champion.
Stephan Larouche had continued to believe in Jean Pascal, even after the two TKO defeats against Sergey Kovalev and the recent decision loss to Dmitry Bivol.
He saw several flaws from Browne's biggest career win, which came against Badou Jack.
"We've seen shortcomings [Browne had] against Badou Jack. We thought that if we hit him hard, we had a chance to send him to the floor," explained the coach to RDS.
As BoxingScene.com reported, Browne is likely going to exercise his rematch clause.
But he suffered a very bad cut in the eight round, which may require several months of recovery time.
Pascal has no problem with a rematch, but wants to fight again before the end of the year. If necessary, he will take a stay busy fight before a rematch with Browne takes place.
"People would say, 'Jean, why do not you stop?' I knew I still had gas in the tank. I knew I could still become world champion again," Pascal said to RDS.
"I know I have a rematch against Marcus Browne. I do not know if he will take his rematch option. But also I know he has to take a break. I will probably have a fight between the two in the meantime. I would like to return before the end of 2019."
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.
