Pascal Stops Nievas

By William Mackay: Making his first appearance since being defeated by Carl Froch in December, super middleweight contender Jean Pascal (22-1, 15 KOs) stopped Argentinean Pablo Daniel Zamora Nievas (22-6-1, 15 KOs) in the 5th round of a scheduled 12 round bout to win the vacant World Boxing Organization Inter-Continental super middleweight title on Saturday night at the Montreal Casino, in Montreal, Canada.

Pascal, 26, was driven to the ropes by Nievas early in the 5th round was taking big body shots from the Argentinean when Pascal suddenly fired off a huge left hook that staggered Nievas badly. Pascal then added one final left hook to send Nievas down flat on his back. Referee Gerry Bolen then stopped the bout at 0:42 of the 5th.

Pascal controlled the first two minutes of the opening round using jabs and right hands, hitting Nievas with fast shots. Pascal looked very impressive during this part of the round. However, in the last minute, Nievas came on two three punch combinations to the head of Pascal.

Nievas continued attacking Pascal in the start of the 2nd round, opening up with some hard hooks to the body and right hands to the head. At this point, I was frankly stunned at how easy it was for Nievas to hit Pascal. Sure, Carl Froch had been able to hit Pascal without any problems in Jeans’ last fight in December, but that’s not surprising because Froch is a great fighter.

Nievas, though, is far from great and is pretty much a good B fighter, yet he was finding Pascal again and again with shots to the body and hit in this round and the first. Suddenly, what Froch accomplished wasn’t such a big deal after all. If Nievas can put hands on Pascal like this, then any fighter with halfway decent skills probably could as well.

Pascal took control over the 2nd late in the round when he began to throw a lot of right hands. In the last minute of the round, Pascal landed two tremendous right hands. Nievas took the shots well, but it was clear that he wouldn’t be able to take them for long if Pascal kept hitting him with huge punches.

Nievas controlled the first half of the 3rd round, jabbing Pascal and pounding him with right hands. Pascal looked awful defensively, taking a lot of head shots from the Argentinean again and again in the round and not blocking or getting out of the way of any of them. Pascal came roaring back with little left in the round, landing two big right hands and hitting Nievas with a lot of jabs.

Early in the 4th, Nievas nailed Pascal with a gargantuan left hook to the head. Nievas immediately fired off another huge shot, a big right hand that knocked Pascal backwards into the ropes. Pascal returned with a big left to Nievas’ midsection. Both fighters traded shots in the last half minute of the round.

During that time, Pascal landed some nice hooks and had Nievas on the ropes where Pascal was able to briefly tee off on him.

In the 5th, Nievas came right at Pascal, driving him to the ropes with combinations. Nievas pounded away at Pascal landing six consecutive times. Just when it started looking good for Nievas, Pascal reached back and landed a huge left hook that staggered Nievas. Pascal added one more follow-up left hand that put Nievas down. The fight was then immediately stopped because Nievas was too hurt to fight.

Pascal, however, was far from impressive in the fight. His defense was poor, his work rate low, and he didn’t have control over the fight at times.

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