Comments Thread For: Bivol: I'm Confident That I'll Make a Statement With Pascal

[richardt]

I like Bivol but I often pull for the guys who have been around a while and almost always in those cases pull for the more familiar face, in this case Pascal, so whatever happens, I hope Pascal shows a good account of himself.

[pillowfists98]

If he knocks out Pascal that will automatically top what Alvarez did.

[robbyheartbaby]

People need to remember Pascal has a tonne of heart and ain't no bum, I hope he really f**** up the apple cart and somehow pulls off the win, or at least shows Bivol up for trying to pick off a semi-retired former champ for the name only.

[landotter]

People need to remember Pascal has a tonne of heart and ain't no bum, I hope he really f**** up the apple cart and somehow pulls off the win, or at least shows Bivol up for trying to pick off a semi-retired former champ for the name only.

It seems like Bivol and his people were at a complete loss what to do after their plans for a Kovalev showdown got derailed. So, why not offer up a ton of money to a name that will look good on a resume? I like Bivol. But this screams like a "look at me" kind of fight. He will get a name that the boxing fans will acknowledge as legit since he can't get Kovalev.

He wins. Just too much in the tank, too smart in the ring. But I bet Pascal presses the action and makes Bivol take this victory the hard way, not coast to an easy win.

[Bobby Tony]

An early night and then it's bye bye HBO

[trufightfanatic]

Pascal is coming out of retirement for this fight but lets not forget on his way out he beat someone he was supposed to have been fed to. Pascal has good power, is awkward, pesky and comes to fight. If he has a decent amount left in the tank Bivol will have to work hard to get that W.

[Boxing Logic]

This is still a dangerous fight for Bivol because anyone who is inexperienced and walks into one of those tricky right hand counters from Pascal can be badly hurt. With that said, it's also a fight that isn't very interesting. I was hoping for Bivol vs Beterbiev in February or March but Beterbiev just found another excuse to avoid the top guys (no wonder he signed with Al Haymon even though he is Russian. Even the one Russian boxer who wants to avoid the best opponents somehow finds his way to Al Haymon in America! It's remarkable. Just like clockwork. If you want to duck the best, who ya gonna call? Al Haymon) so I've given up on big fights with Beterbiev ever happening. He already turned down Kovalev twice, he never calls out Stevenson and Stevenson never calls out him (I guess they both went to Al for the same reason so there is no conflict there), and now he delayed the Joe Smith fight until it would conflict with a unification bout early next year. Always something. Could have just canceled it. He might even lose to Smith because he looks to be in decline. Seeing as he's almost 34, I'm sure he is. GGG, Kovalev, Pacquiao, and almost every other good offensive fighter this entire generation has lost multiple steps by the age of 34.

So, Beterbiev wasted his entire prime fighting cab drivers, just like GGG and Kovalev, only difference is they tried to fight the best in their primes, but were ducked. With Beterbiev,it's like he never even tried, or did not care. But hey, maybe life was so bad where he came from, he's happy to just be in the U.S. moving up the rankings getting paid for easy fights that eventually lead to a world title where he can make a few million for some easy fights over a couple years and then retire and live comfortably for the rest of his life. If his life growing up was that miserable, and he wanted for money that much, then I understand completely, but it's just... it's not like he wouldn't have gotten paid to face Stevenson if not Kovalev as well. And it's not like he couldn't go back to making money after those fights, win or lose. And ultimately, even if your goal is just to collect easy money for most of your career, you should still test yourself against the best at least once while you're still at YOUR best otherwise you leave the fans and probably yourself always wondering what could have been, and how good you really were in the first place. Now, just like with GGG and Kovalev, we will probably never know with Beterbiev. Even with Pacquiao, we never got to see how good he could be against prime Floyd, but we did see him against prime Marquez who once you adjust for size and cheating, is better than Floyd. But I still wanted to see prime Pac vs prime Floyd and it still sucks for boxing and all us fans that it didn't happen.

Now, Beterbiev is repeating the same mistake. I expect we will only see a diminishing version of Beterbiev in the ring going forward because 34 is DEFINITELY decline age. You need to start worrying about it at 31, honestly. 32 is definitely decline age. 33 you almost always see it very clearly. And 34, that's now beginning what you call "past prime" completely, and then by 36 to 39 you are usually shot completely. Some exceptions out there, almost always with suspect PED testing or none at all, but yeah, Beterbiev probably wont be the same going forward, which means we never got to see him vs the best in his prime. Sounds like the biggest prime fights of his entire career that people will look back on are his amateur fights with Usyk, just like GGG's will probably be his amateur fights with Bute, Dirrell, and maybe a few others. It's very disappointing because we expected to see way more legacy fights with them in the pros, when they were fully developed, not have only 3 round amateur fights in headgear to look back on when these guys were still young and not fully developed.

As usual, the promoters and managers and matchmakers of this sport are not doing a very good job for the boxers or the fans. It makes you ask, who exactly is winning here if the boxers and the fans aren't getting chances to achieve their potential or watch the boxers try to achieve their potential?

[Stanj]

I cant see pascal being able to do anything against bivol. I see a ko around the middle rds .

[Stanj]

I got bivol in a ko in the middle rds once he get warmed up. I cant see pascal doing anything to slow bivol down