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“I would like to move down to 168 pounds, but my body doesn’t allow me to do that. I walk around at like 187-189, but I only have a small percentage of body fat, so it would be impossible for me to go down to 168. After my fight against Bernard Hopkins we offered Lucian Bute to fight me next this fall, and he said no. So I was really disappointed because I think Lucian Bute’s fans deserve more than that. Lucian Bute is a great fighter but he’s always fighting boxers below his level, and he needs to step up his game and fight boxers of his caliber. Like he wants to fight Kelly Pavlik! Kelly Pavlik was a great boxer, but I don’t think he’s at Lucian Bute’s level right now. I don’t want to take anything away from Kelly Pavlik, but Bute is way bigger and he is more on his fight right now. So you know we offered him to fight me for the fourth time, and he said no. So I was really disappointed by him. Lucian Bute needs to get more balls, to risk himself a little bit, to try to roll the dice because one day it’s going to catch him.”
On whether he believes Bute is biding his time so he can be well rested to face the winner of the Super Six who will have had five difficult fights in a row:
“Yes, but that’s going to trick him because he’s going to be fresh, but fresh without really valuable experience. You know me, I fought Carl Froch and I gained experience. I fought Bernard Hopkins twice and that brought me a lot of experience. In boxing, you see you can be good but you need adversity to see what you can do in front of adversity. Anyone can be the pound-for-pound boxer when they seek out boxers. Anyone can be like that. Once when he’s in a fight with a real boxer, he’s going to see adversity and he’s not going to be able to do anything because it’s going to be his first time facing adversity. He might be fresh, but he won’t have the experience to win those kind of fights, because at that level, talent sometimes is not enough.”
-Jean Pascal
On whether he believes Bute is biding his time so he can be well rested to face the winner of the Super Six who will have had five difficult fights in a row:
“Yes, but that’s going to trick him because he’s going to be fresh, but fresh without really valuable experience. You know me, I fought Carl Froch and I gained experience. I fought Bernard Hopkins twice and that brought me a lot of experience. In boxing, you see you can be good but you need adversity to see what you can do in front of adversity. Anyone can be the pound-for-pound boxer when they seek out boxers. Anyone can be like that. Once when he’s in a fight with a real boxer, he’s going to see adversity and he’s not going to be able to do anything because it’s going to be his first time facing adversity. He might be fresh, but he won’t have the experience to win those kind of fights, because at that level, talent sometimes is not enough.”
-Jean Pascal