By Jim Dower: at 31, undefeated super middleweight Carl Froch (24-0, 19 KOs) finally got his title, defeating previously unbeaten top contender Jean Pascal (21-1, 14 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision to win the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) super middleweight at the Trent FM Arena, in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire. The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 117-111 and 118-110.
Froch, ranked #1 in the WBC and #11 in the World Boxing Organization (WBO), struggled in the first six rounds of the fight, taking big shots from the faster Pascal. However, Froch continued letting his hands go, landing hard shots and out-working Pascal along the way.
Eventually, in the second half of the bout, Froch’s high punch output paid off dividends for him as Pascal couldn’t keep up with Froch’s hectic pace, and tired out and lost most of the last six rounds of the fight. Froch’s hand speed was nowhere near as good as Pascal, but his punches were and although he was often beaten to the punch in the first half of the fight, Froch didn’t seem to care as he continued landing hard shots and making Pascal work much harder than he usually does.
Pascal, 26, who patterned his fighting style after Roy Jones Jr., was unable to keep the taller 6’0″ Froch off of him and could only try to fight back as hard as possible to get some space. In the end, he couldn’t match Froch punch for punch and ended up taking a lot of punishment in the last four to five rounds of the fight.
Froch, fighting in a straight stand up European style, stalked Pascal around the ring in the first round, hitting him with jabs and hard right hands in the first. Pascal was often able to counter him with blazing fast right hands and left hooks as Froch came forward.
However, Froch showed a great chin and was never slowed by Pascal’s big shots. In the second round, Pascal landed frequently with left and right hands, especially in the second half of the round. During that time, he hit Froch with some shots that would have dropped a lesser fighter than him. Froch, though, was never bothered in the least and kept coming forward, throwing his own big punches.
Froch appeared to win the 3rd round by a close margin, despite getting hit with some tremendous shots from Pascal. Like in the other rounds, Froch’s work rate was high and Pascal, even fighting in his top gear, was hard-pressed to try and match his output.
In the 5th round, Pascal teed-off with some huge left hooks and right hands, nailing Froch often in the round. In the 5th, Froch came back strong and controlled the fight until the waning seconds of the round when Pascal let loose with a flurry of shots, ending with a couple of them occurring after the bell. Referee Guido Cavalleri gave Pascal a warning about the shots.
In rounds six and seven, Froch’s high work rate began to pay off for him as Pascal’s punch output began to drop off steadily. In the 7th, Pascal’s right eye began to swell and his nose bleed and he looked both worried and tired, as if he didn’t know how to make Froch back off from him.
Indeed, Froch appeared to have only one gear – a forward gear and he pressed the fight to Pascal constantly. Pascal looked okay when fighting going backwards in the early rounds but as the fight moved into the second half, he started to look weak and ineffective.
In rounds eight through ten, Froch began finding it much easier for him as Pascal’s punches, which were coming in less and less, missed often as if Pascal had lost his bearing in the right. Froch, however, found it even easier to land than before and constantly pelted Pascal with big shots.
In the 11th and 12th rounds, Froch fought hard, continuing to land nearly nonstop punches against Pascal, whose defense had pretty much disappeared. In the end, Pascal didn’t have the stamina, power or work rate to stand in against Froch’s high octane offense for the full 12-rounds.
However, I have to give credit to Pascal for having a good chin because he absorbed a tremendous amount of punishment in the fight and didn’t show any signs of getting hurt at any time.
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