Pascal Motivated, Says Camp With Freddie Roach is Going Great

By Luke Furman

Former champion Jean Pascal has spent the entire holidays in Los Angeles, where the boxer is training very hard with coach Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood.

The Canadian star is preparing for his upcoming fight with WBO/WBA/IBF light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (28-0-1, 25 KOs) on January 30th at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.

"I spent the holidays at the gym, in training. It does not bother me that I didn't celebrate Christmas, because in winning my fight on January 30th it will be Christmas every day," Pascal told QMI.

Pascal, 33-years-old, brought Roach on board to correct any flaws in his style and to put together a good strategy to beat Kovalev. The two fighters fought in a very exciting contest last March, where Kovalev won with an eight round TKO. Pascal (30-3-1, 17KOs), a former WBC titleholder, was very unhappy with the stoppage. Both fighters have promised to win by knockout.

"The chemistry [with Roach] has been there from the start. Currently we are working very, very hard on very specific things to make me win this fight. We've made  a lot of adjustments, but it's just small adjustments that can make a big difference when fighting," said Pascal.

"People have doubts? Good for them, it'll be even more exciting when I'm going to win. My motivation now, it is at its maximum. First, I want to represent [my country], and secondly I want to become world champion, and third I especially want to impress my new coach."

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.