By Luke Furman, photo by Robert Levesque

Former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (30-4-1, 17KOs) will return to the ring on December 16, and everything suggests that it will be at the Cogeco Amphitheater in Trois-Rivières.

Camille Estephan, the owner of InterBox, Eye of the Tiger Management and promoter of Jean Pascal, confirmed the news to the Journal de Montréal on Saturday.

Back in September, Pascal officially ending his association with Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, and he started a relationship with veteran Canadian trainer Stephan Larouche - who is best known for his work with Eric Lucas, Leonard Dorin and Lucian Bute.

Pascal hired Roach last year after a lackluster showing against Yunieski Gonzalez. Pascal barely squeezed out a decision win over ten rounds at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

Pascal, with Roach in his corner, took a beating when he faced unified light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev in January of this year in Montreal. He seemed to have very little in the fight and it was stopped after seven rounds of action.

The Canadian star is still a very big name and a big ticket seller in his country. There was loose talk of a fall fight with Artur Beterbiev, but it never came together. If Pascal can get himself back on track, there is still some money in an all-Canadian grudge fight with WBC world champion Adonis Stevenson.

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.