By Allan Fox: 32-year-old Jean Pascal (29-2-1, 17 KOs) will be taking part in an important fight this Saturday night against 35-year-old Argentinean Roberto Bolonti (35-3, 24 KOs) at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada.
The fight is little more than a tune-up bout for Pascal, but it’s important because he needs a win over Boloti in order to get a much bigger fight against IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KOs) on March 14th next year.
That’s the fight that Pascal wants, and he’s hoping he can get past Bolonti with flying colors in order to test himself against the hard hitting Russian fighter.
Pascal could have waited out a fight against WBC champion Adonis Stevenson, but you can’t blame Pascal for taking the easier to put together fight against Kovalev. Stevenson, as good as he is, he’s been taking it easy for the most part since capturing the WBC title over Chad Dawson last year.
Kovalev is coming off of a 12 round decision over Bernard Hopkins last month at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The fight with the 49-year-old Hopkins was supposed to have been a competitive match-up, but it turned out to be an easy one for Kovalev due to his power advantage. Hopkins initially attempted to make a fight of it, but after he tasted Kovalev’s power early in the 1st round, he played it safe for the remaining 11 rounds of the fight.
The Kovalev-Pascal fight will be taking place in Canada in Montreal or possibly Quebec City. HBO Championship Boxing will be televising the fight. Kovalev needs the IBF to let him bypass his mandatory challenger Nadjib Mohammedi. However, the IBF will likely give Kovalev permission to take the much bigger fight against Pascal first.
“Sergey has made it very clear since the moment we signed him that he only wants to fight the best fighters,” Kovalev’s promoter Kathy Duva of Main Events said via Yahoo Sports. “I promised after his demolition of Bernard Hopkins that the next one would be for the money. I’m thrilled to work with Interbox to bring boxing fans ‘The Krusher’ versus Jean Pascal, which delivers on both fronts. The truth is that these fights are easy to make when both fighters want to be in the big fights and the promoters and managers are willing to be reasonable and work together.”
The Kovalev-Pascal fight is a big deal in Canada, but it’s not likely going to attract a huge amount of interest in the U.S in terms of ratings due to Pascal having been out of things for so long.
Pascal was a top guy years ago, but he’s kind of dropped out of sight since being whipped by Hopkins in 2011. A much bigger fight would be Kovalev vs. Stevenson or Kovalev vs. one of the top super middleweights like Andre Ward or Carl Froch. Pascal is a big fight for Canadians, but it’s not a fight that will likely resonate for American boxing fans.
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