Jean Pascal: Lack of Recent Rounds Won’t Hurt Me

by David P. Greisman

Jean Pascal has fought less than two rounds in the past 12 months, and he still has a bit to go before his March 14 fight with light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev in Montreal on HBO.

Pascal had kicked off 2014 with a 12-round unanimous decision win over Lucian Bute in January and had hoped to return earlier in the year than ended up happening. His bout with late replacement opponent Roberto Bolonti came on Dec. 6. That fight ended in the second round as a no contest, when Pascal hit Bolonti on a break and Bolonti went down — and appeared to intentionally stay down as if he could not continue.

“I don’t think that’s going to effect me,” Pascal said on a Feb. 24 media conference call, soon following with: “I know I’m going to go there, I’m going to give my 100 percent. I know I’m going to be sharp. Just because I took like a nine-month layoff doesn’t change something in my skills or my speed. I’m very, very confident that even though I went only two rounds on Dec. 6, I’m going to be well prepared to get the ‘W’ at the end of the night on March 14.”

Kovalev fought three times in 2014, scoring a knockout of Cedric Agnew in March, a quick win over Blake Caparello in August, and a unanimous decision over Bernard Hopkins in November.

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