Pascal: My Eardrum Was Hurt, Vision Blurry vs. Kovalev

by David P. Greisman

Not too long after his fight with Sergey Kovalev began, Jean Pascal says that an eardrum of his had been hurt and his eyesight had also been affected, according to an interview Pascal did recently with Mathieu Boulay of Le Journal de Montreal.

“One of my eardrums was perforated during the first three rounds,” Pascal said, via Google Translate, noting that the injury affected his balance and gave the impression that he had been shaken by Kovalev’s shots.

To make matters worse, the vision in his right eye was blurry, he said.

“I could not see the blows coming,” he said.

Yet Pascal was able to adjust, winning the fifth and sixth rounds on the judges’ scorecards before Kovalev took back over and scored an eighth-round technical knockout.

Kovalev, who holds three of the four major world titles at light heavyweight, moved to 27-0-1 with 24 KOs with the Pascal victory. Pascal, meanwhile, dropped to 29-3-1 with 17 KOs and 1 no contest.

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