By Dan Ambrose: IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KOs) expects a really crazy fight from #1 WBO #5 IBF, #6 WBA Jean Pascal (29-2-1, 17 KOs) in their fight this Saturday night on HBO Championship Boxing at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Kovalev says Pascal has a crazy fighting style with the way that he throws punches from every angle, and does odd-looking things in the ring. For instance, in Pascal’s fight last year against Lucian Bute in January of 2014, Pascal threw a double punch at Bute at point in the fight that made Pascal look almost amateurish.

It’s exactly this kind of unpredictability that makes him so hard to figure out for a lot of fighters, because you just never know what he’s going to do. However, the pressure that Kovalev will likely be putting on Pascal will make Pascal more easy to figure out, because he’s likely to respond to it in the same way each time by moving away. Pascal likely won’t be standing his ground, because that would require for him to get hit a lot, and he’s not someone that likes to get hit.

“We will check how good of a boxer I am in this fight on Saturday,” Kovalev said via HBO. “Jean Pascal is a different opponent than Bernard Hopkins. I can say his style is very different, and I can say even crazy, because he can punch from any position. [He’s] not a regular boxer.”

In some ways Pascal is a more difficult boxer than Hopkins due to his hand speed, power and mobility. But in other ways Pascal is an easier opponent than Hopkins, because Pascal doesn’t respond well when being pressured. He also doesn’t fight well when the pace of the fight is slowed down on him.

Pascal is at his best when he’s got a fight that is fought at a fast pace. With that said, it’s hard to predict how Pascal will respond to being forced into a fast pace fight at this point in his career at the age of 32. Pascal has really had only two fights in the past two years.

You can’t count his last fight against Roberto Bolonti, because that fight ended in the 2nd round after Pascal nailed Bolonti with a rabbit punch that decked him. The fight was subsequently ruled a no contest. Pascal’s last two fights before that were against Lucian But and George Blades.

Pascal hasn’t been an active fighter in the last four years, and that’s why it’s hard to predict what you’ll get from him on Saturday night when he gts inside the ring with Kovalev.

The closest opponent that Pascal has fought with a style somewhat like Kovalev’s was in his fight against Carl Froch in 2009. Pascal fought well for only six rounds in trading shots with Froch. But in the 2nd half of that fight, Pascal really gassed out and was just taking shots without offering much back. Froch swept the second half of the fight to win a 12 round decision.

“It’s bigger because of fighting for three belts. I’m ready for this fight,” Pascal said via HBO. Of course, I’m better, because I’m more mature. I know my job a little better. I fought Bernard Hopkins twice in 24 rounds. I fought Carl Froch, Chad Dawson. I fought the best in the world.”