MONTREAL - Dejection was written on Jean Pascal's face after the most lopsided defeat of his 35-fight pro boxing career.

The former champion had been mauled for seven rounds by unified light heavyweight champ Sergey Kovalev before about 10,000 of Pascal's disappointed hometown fans on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.

Kovalev (29-0-1 with 26 knockouts) retained his championship belts from the WBA, WBO and IBF by winning the rematch only 10 months after needing eight far more difficult rounds to stop Pascal (30-4-1) in their first meeting.

To prepare for the second meeting, Pascal had dropped longtime coach Marc Ramsay and hired renowned trainer Freddie Roach. It was Roach who ended up signalling to referee Michael Griffin that his fighter was done after the seventh round.

Pascal averaged 4.3 landed punches per round, threw 15.4. Kovalev 23.6, threw 58.9. Kovalev landed more jabs (87) than Pascal threw (60).

It had been a stormy week, with Pascal accusing the Russian of racism over some questionable comments last year about WBC champion Adonis Stevenson of Montreal and others.

He made a grand entrance to the ring, with fight star Roy Jones Jr. leading the way, while Kovalev was accompanied by former Montreal Canadians star Alex Kovalev (no relation).

But once inside, the usually attacking, free-swinging Pascal looked passive, never mounting a serious threat to the skilled and power-hitting Kovalev, who may have dragged the bout out an extra round or two just to rub it in.

He won every round clearly and looked to have knocked Pascal down in the first round.

Roach said the jab that backed up sparring partners in camp didn't work on Kovalev, whose power kept Pascal backing up and unable to launch attacks. Instead, he absorbed repeated lefts and rights from the champion.

Roach wanted to stop the bout a round earlier, but Pascal asked for one more round.

However, Kovalev apparently didn't fulfil his pre-fight wish to end his career because 33-year-old Pascal vowed to keep fighting.