In a fight much tougher than he expected, super middleweight contender Jean Pascal (20-0, 14KOs) won a grueling 10-round unanimous decision over Brian Norman (15-6 4KOs) last night at Bell Centre in Montreal. Pascal, 25, seemed to be fighting a mirror image of himself, as Norman’s physique looked almost identical to Pascal. However, in terms of punching speed and power, Pascal was far superior, as he pounded out a hard-earned decision against Norman. In the first two rounds, pascal landed numerous shots, trying to take Norman out.
However, Norman proved to have an excellent chin, taking every shot Pascal could dish out and then repaying him with hard right hands. The fight ended up much closer than I expected, as Norman appeared to win four of the rounds, mostly due to his power right hand, which he landed often against Pascal. The final judges’ scores were 98-92, 98-92 and 98-92. The fight was much closer than the score cards would indicate, though I’m not surprised because it was fought in Canada, Pascal’s home country.
In the 4th round, Pascal landed some beautiful left hooks to the head of Norman, causing the crowd to scream wildly. Thinking he had Norman hurt, Pascal poured it on, landing an enormous amount of punches. Unfortunately, however, Norman didn’t go anywhere and Pascal punched himself out, and took a beating in the final minute of the round. It actually pretty amusing, and showed how much pascal has to learn about fighting.
In rounds 5-10, both fighters took turns trading huge shots back and forth with Pascal getting slightly the better of Norman. However, Pascal wasn’t as impressive as he should have been for a fighter that is thought to be a future champion in the super middleweight division. Next up is Edison Miranda, who I’d give a good shot at stopping Pascal if he can hit him as easily as Norman did tonight. He’s very beatable.
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