By Allan Fox: A bout between former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (27-2-1, 16 KO’s) and former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) has reportedly been put together for May 25th, according to TVA Sports.
There’s no word what will happen with the 30-year-old Pascal’s planned title challenge against WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson, which had previously been penciled in for the same date at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada.
The venue for the Bute-Pascal fight will be at one of three spots: Bell Centre, Olympic Stadium or PEPS Laval University. This is going to be a huge fight because both Bute and Pascal routinely fight in front of sold out audiences in Montreal, Canada.
Pascal explained his reasons for taking the fight with Bute instead of Dawson, saying to TVA Sports “Lucian threw me a challenge.”
It was easy fight to accept because there’s actual interest from Canadian boxing fans in seeing a Bute-Pascal fight. I’m not sure if you can really say the same thing about a Dawson-Pascal rematch because Dawson was stopped in his last fight by Andre Ward, and his stock has really gone down in the last couple of years.
The promotional companies InterBox and GYM plan on finalizing the Bute-Pascal fight in the next few days, and there could be a rematch planned if the fight brings in big numbers. Both fighters will receive $2 million each, and it’s still too early to know whether the fight will be televised by HBO or Showtime in the United States to American fans.
It’s not known if the Pascal-Bute fight will take place at light heavyweight or super middleweight. Bute was mentioned as possibly fighting Sakio Bika, the WBC 168 mandatory challenger, for the WBC super middleweight title. That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen now.
Pascal has fought only once in the past two years, beating Aleksy Kuziemski by a 10 round unanimous decision last December in a fight where Pascal injured his left bicep and was forced to fight with just his right for the last 6 rounds.
Bute defeated Denis Grachev by a 12 round unanimous decision last November in an impressive performance by Bute. In his fight before that, Bute was stopped in the 5th round by Carl Froch last year in May. Bute looks to have lost a step, and he’s not looking like the same fighter he was several years ago when he was dominating his opponents at super middleweight.
Comments are closed.