By Luke Furman
The scheduled bout between former light heavyweight world champion Jean Pascal and ex-mixed martial arts fighter Steve Bosse has been pushed back.
The contest was scheduled to take place on June 29 at Place Bell in Laval, Canada.
But because of poor ticket sales, the contest has been postponed until July 20.
According to Yvon Michel, a little less than 2000 tickets were sold. Yet, he expected that the curiosity of the fight would turns into success at the box office. He acknowledged that the timing was not right, between two long weekends and through the succession of boxing cards in Quebec this summer.
He added to La Presse: "there is no link with postponing the date of the event, it is really because we have a new partner in Olivier Primeau and the Beach Club. He asked us a few weeks to maximize the promotion of the event."
Last December, Pascal (32-5-1, 19 KOs) pulled off a big upset with the oddsmakers, when he secured an impressive stoppage of previously unbeaten Ahmed Elbiali (16-1, 13 KOs) in the sixth round. The contest was the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card from the Hialeah Park in Miami, Florida.
Prior to the contest, Pascal stated that his contest with Elbiali was going to be the final bout of his 12-year career.
In what appears to be the Canadian version of Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor, Pascal has promised to batter Bosse and send him running back to mixed martial arts.
Bosse made his boxing debut as a heavyweight with a victory over Julio Cuellar Cabrera at the Montreal Casino in February. The 36-year-old from St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que., played six seasons of professional hockey in the 2000s in a Quebec league that encouraged fighting. He then turned to MMA.
Bosse was 12-2 as a MMA fighter, winning two of three bouts in the UFC. He last fought in the UFC in June 2016, earning a unanimous decision over Sean O'Connell.
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org
