By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-2-1, 16 KO’s) has been sitting idle for the past eight months since losing his World Boxing Council title to 46-year-old Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KO’s). Pascal was hoping to fight Dawson after he defeated Hopkins by a 2nd round TKO last October.

However, Hopkins and his promoters from Golden Boy Promotions appealed the stoppage to the WBC and the California State Athletic Commission and they overturned the stoppage and ruled it a 2nd round no contest. In turn, Dawson’s promoter Gary Shaw appealed to the WBC to get an immediate rematch ordered and what got his wish. Hopkins now has to give Dawson an immediate rematch or else he will get his title stripped from him.

Pascal doesn’t care who wins the rematch between them. He’ll face either of them. Pascal has a 11th round technical decision win over Dawson last year in August in a fight that took place in Pascal’s home of Canada. Pascal was badly hurt in the 11th by Dawson but right when it appeared Dawson was going to knock Pascal out the two fighters collided heads and to Pascal’s great luck, Dawson was badly cut over his right eye and the referee hastily halted the fight rather than letting Dawson try to finish Pascal off or have Dawson’s corner work on the cut in between rounds. It worked out perfectly for Pascal. This allowed the fight to go to the cards and he was already well up on the cards at the time, so he was given the win.

Pascal’s luck wasn’t as good in his two fights with Hopkins, however. In their first fight last year in December 2010, Pascal and Hopkins fought to a 12 round majority draw. Pascal appeared to lose that fight after leading early. He ran out of gas and had problems with Hopkins’ superior inside game. In the rematch last May, Pascal allowed Hopkins to fight at a slow pace and control the distance and the inside game. This time, Pascal really looked bad and got the loss by a 12 round unanimous decision.

Pascal, ranked #3 WBC and #3 WBA, reportedly isn’t sure who would have won the Dawson-Hopkins fight from last. Pascal thinks Hopkins might have been able to get his offense started after a bad start and possibly win the fight. It’s hard to believe that Hopkins would have been able to do that in looking at how much smaller, slower and weaker he was compared to Dawson. Unlike the Dawson that fought Pascal, this was a motivated Dawson that was fighting with a lot of aggression and anger. I kind of doubt that Hopkins would have been able to do much against him had he not fell to the canvas and injured his left shoulder.

Pascal may indeed get to fight the Dawson vs. Hopkins winner because Dawson has already said he wants to face Pascal next. As for Hopkins, I don’t know that he wants to fight Pascal again because he already proved that he’s the better fighter and there might not be much interest among fans to see yet another fight between them, especially when Pascal has done zero since losing to Hopkins. Pascal needs to start fighting again.