By Allan Fox: Former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) plans on setting a fast pace and wearing down the 31-year-old former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (28-2-1, 17 KO’s) in their scheduled 12 round bout next month on January 18th at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada. Bute, 33, will be defending his NABF light heavyweight title.
Bute has noticed that Pascal tends to wear down in the 2nd half of his fights when his opponents are able to put pressure on him. We saw this in Pascal’s losses to Carl Froch and Bernard Hopkins. However, it’s not easy to be able to stay in there with Pascal until he gets to the point where he’s tiring because of his power and quick hands. Bute is going to need to be careful because Pascal has the kind of power to score a quick stoppage if he catches Bute with a big shot.
“Jean Pascal is a fighter boxing between 90 and 12 seconds per round,” Bute said to Journal de Montreal. “He will not be able to keep up with the pace I set. It will be a one-way duel where I control the action. With my trainer Stephan Larouche, we worked on a plan A, but also a plan B/ We have the tools to beat Jean Pascal and you will see Lucian Bute of the past.”
Bute hasn’t seemed like the same fighter he once was since his 5th round stoppage loss to Carl Froch last year in May of 2012. Bute tried to fight Froch off the ropes and ended up getting taken out quickly in a fight that took place in Froch’s home city of Nottingham, UK. In Bute’s late fight, he struggled to beat Denis Grachev by a 12 round unanimous decision. Bute didn’t look confident until the 12th round, and it was a lot tougher bout that many boxing fans expected it to be.
Pascal hasn’t done much with his career in the past three years since his win over Chad Dawson in 2010. Pascal fought to a 12 round draw against Bernard Hopkins in December 2010, and then lost a rematch to him by a 12 round unanimous decision in May of 2011. Since then, Pascal has fought just twice in beating Aleksy Kuziemski and George Blades. But his last good performance was in the Dawson fight three years ago.
Also on the January 18th Pascal-Bute card will be light heavyweight contender Eleider Alvarez facing Thomas Oosthuizen in a step up fight for Alvarez, heavyweight Mike Perez battling slugger Carlos Takam in a 10 round bout, bantamweights Sebastien Gauthier and Javier Franco in an 8 round bout. Welterweight puncher Mikael Zewski will be fighting an opponent still to be determined.
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