It was announced over the weekend that a rematch between Sergey Kovalev and Jean Pascal would have a reprisal of their March match-up that saw 'the Krusher' stop Pascal in eight rounds at the Bell Centre in Montreal. While this was an entertaining affair, it was a one-sided contest and most observers and fans feel a bit letdown with this sequel which is scheduled for January 30th for HBO.
According to Canadian expert Jean-Luc Legrand, a rematch between reigning Super WBA, IBF and WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (28-0-1, 25 KOs) and former WBC title owner Jean Pascal (30-3-1, 17 KOs) is all but set. The fight is taking place at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on January, 30.
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.
Sergey Kovalev enjoyed a triumphant ring return on the heels of a Fighter of the Year-level campaign in 2014, scoring an 8th round stoppage of Jean Pascal in their March 14 light heavyweight title fight on the road Montreal, Canada. In addition to becoming the first to stop the former light heavyweight king, Kovalev further solidified his stance atop the division and as a ratings magnet. The unbeaten knockout artist was a hit with the home audience, as the bout registered 1.152 million viewers, according to data provided by Nielsen Media Research. The bout peaked at 1.2 million home viewers.
There were those who had predicted Sergey Kovalev would bomb Jean Pascal out as Kovalev had done to so many others. And Pascal was indeed hurt early, suffering the first official knockdown of his career, pro or amateur, in the third round. He came back, yet in the eighth round got hurt again. The referee, Luis Pabon, stepped in and waved the fight off. Many observers felt the stoppage was proper. Some felt it came too soon. Pascal, of course, is in the latter camp.
It wasn’t quite a classic, didn’t quite meet the threshold of the fights the HBO announcers started to invoke. They didn’t quite hit the level of the Marquis de Saad. Sergey Kovalev and Jean Pascal gave it a hell of a try. They gave us one hell of a fight. Pascal has done this before. Win or lose, he has made memorable encounters with Carl Froch, Chad Dawson, Adrian Diaconu, and Bernard Hopkins. They weren’t all wars, but he is typically entertaining. The guts he showed in facing tough outs Froch, Dawson, Diaconu, and now Kovalev all when they were undefeated were plain enough to see.
Any past criticism of Jean Pascal should go out the window following the way Pascal performed in defeat Saturday night against light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev, according to Russ Anber, the longtime trainer, cutman and boxing insider who serves as a member of Pascal’s team. “ This f***ing guy comes to fight. This guy comes to fight, and that’s what he said he was going to do, and that’s exactly what he did,” Anber said at the post-fight press conference. “Don’t get on this guy’s case anymore because there’s nobody in recent memory, nobody in this place who’s done what this guy did tonight. Nobody.
Sergey Kovalev wouldn’t be going into an immediate rematch with Jean Pascal anyway, not given his desire to hold all four major world titles at light heavyweight, a desire that will bring him into other showdowns first. Even without that goal and the obligations that come with it, Kovalev’s promoter says she wouldn’t want to have Kovalev get straight back in with Pascal just yet. She’s not opposed to it happening again eventually, though.
By Cliff Rold - Russia’s 31-year old unified Light Heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KO) of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, scored a knockdown in round three and then overcame the toughest fight of his professional career to earn an eighth round stoppage of Haitian 32-year old former lineal and WBC Light Heavyweight Champion Jean Pascal (29-3-1, 17 KO) of Laval, Quebec, Canada, on Saturday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Kovalev retained the WBA “Super” and IBF titles for the first time and made his fifth defense of the WBO belt. Pascal suffered the first stoppage loss of his career. In an effort to try and force a showdown between the divisions clear top two, the WBC designated this fight an eliminator for a shot at their titlist, lineal 175 kingpin Adonis Stevenson (25-1, 21 KO). Sanctioning organizations typically don’t rate each other’s champions and Pascal declined to take part in the eliminator. Whether the WBC can influence a Kovalev-Stevenson showdown remains to be seen.
WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson was ringside on Saturday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, watching his countryman Jean Pascal get stopped in the eight round by WBA/WBO/IBF light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev. The win gave Kovalev the WBC's Diamond title and also made him the mandatory challenger to Stevenson. Before they can discuss a possible fight, they have other obligations. Kovalev has an IBF mandatory that he needs to satisfy and Stevenson defends his title against Sakio Bika on April 4th.