Pascal fouls Bolonti, fight ruled a no contest

By Boxing News - 12/07/2014 - Comments

bolonti5By Dan Ambrose: In what was supposed to be a tune-up bout to get former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (29-2-1, 17 KOs) ready for an important fight against IBF/WBA/WBO 175 pound champion Sergey Kovalev, Pascal blew it by fouling his over-matched opponent Roberto Bolonti (35-3, 24 KOs) in the 2nd round last night, causing the fight to be ruled a no contest at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.

Pascal knocked Bolonti down in the 2nd round, and was controlling the round. However, after the two of them locked up a clinch, the referee Michael Griffin called for them to break. Pascal then took this opportunity to nail the defenseless with a hard and fast right hand to the head while he was totally off guard.

The shot knocked Bolonti down face first on the canvas where he was unable to get up to continue fighting. The fight was then ruled a no contest. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:29.

Only Pascal knows for himself why he chose to hit Bolonti on the break. It seemed like something that he didn’t think through clearly, because it was totally unnecessary. Bolonti was out of his class, and just some guy brought in for an easy tune-up fight. Perhaps Pascal didn’t hear the referee yelling break and pulling on his shoulder to break him apart? It’s hard to say. Only Pascal knows for sure.

Moments before the fight-ending foul, Bolonti had hit Pascal with a rabbit punch. Some boxing fans might assume that what Pascal did was retaliation for being fouled with a rabbit punch. Whatever the case, the foul that ended the fight put Pascal in a bad position, because it was clearly a foul and there’s no way of knowing whether Bolonti was legitimately hurt or not. He could have been really just milking it. No one will ever know for sure unless it turns out he wound up with a concussion. After the fight was stopped, Bolonti had to be taken out of the ring on a stretcher with oxygen given to him. He looked like he was really hurt.

The no contest likely won’t keep Pascal from getting a title shot against Kovalev. He’ll still likely get the fight, but obviously it won’t generate interest in the fight. There’s talk that the Kovalev-Pascal fight will be a pay-per-view bout on HBO. But it’s going to be very, very difficult to ask boxing fans in the United States to pay to see Kovalev fight an ex-champion like Pascal coming off of a fight like last Saturday’s bout against Bolonti. Even under the best circumstances, a Kovalev-Pascal fight is one that would likely do decent numbers on free HBO, but not great numbers.



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