By Jim Dower: World Boxing Council light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (25-1, 16 KO’s) defeated former WBC light heavyweight champion Adrian Diaconu (26-2, 15 KO’s) tonight by a 12 round decision at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The final judges’ scores were 117-111, 117-111 and 118-110. Pascal was too fast and much more skilled than the slower Diaconu.

Like a lot of fights that take place in Canada, the scores were slightly off compared to the action that took place in the fight. Diaconu appeared to fight Pascal on even terms the entire fight and just came up a little short in the end. I had the fight scored seven rounds to five for Pascal. Diaconu was the aggressor throughout the fight.

However, Pascal, with his better hand speed, was able to score with lightning fast flurries from time to time. Pacal often through shoe shine flurries to make up for giving away vast stretches of every round. In the 3rd round, Pascal injured his right shoulder after hitting Diaconu with a hard right hand. The shoulder would continue to give Pascal problems for the remainder of the bout and limiting his use of his right hand.

At the end of the 10th round, Pascal dislocated his shoulder after hitting Diaconu with a right hand. Pascal then ran from Diaconu and signaled for the referee to stop the action. However, the round ended just as Pacal was signaling for the referee to step in. In between rounds, Pascal’s corner easily put his shoulder back into the socket while Pascal winced in pain.

Diaconu controlled the first two rounds with hard right hands and a constant jab in Pascal’s face. During this time, Pascal looked tentative about letting his hands go. In rounds three and four, Pascal came on with fast punches. He hurt his right shoulder in the 3rd, and after that threw mostly left hands for the remainder of the bout.

Pascal re-injured his right shoulder in the 5th while trying to hit Diaconu with a hard right hand. This led to Diaconu controlling the remainder of the round, including the 6th. Pascal mainly moved a lot in these rounds throwing almost entirely lefts.

In rounds seven through eleven, Pascal controlled the action with blazing fast combination and hard left hands. In the 10th, Pascal was warned for throwing elbows. He continued to throw them after the warning, however. In the 12th round, Diaconu took the fight to Pascal and edged the round with his harder shots.

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In other action on the card, former World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Eric Lucas (39-7-3, 15 KO’s) stopped 37-year-old Argentinian Ramon Pedro Moyano (27-9-3, 15 KO’s) in the 4th round of a scheduled eight round bout. For Lucas, now 38, it was his first bout since retiring three years ago following a 10th round TKO to Mikkel Kessler in 2006.

Lucas looked nothing like his former self, taking shots from Moyano and looking a lot slower than he used to in the first part of his career. In the 4th round, Lucas dropped Moyano with a left hook to the head just as Moyano was attempting to throw a right of his own. Referee Gerry Bolen immediately stopped the bout at 0:43 of the round.

Lucas controlled rounds one through three with his left hand and jabs. He moved a little and ducked an occasional shot, but looked like he was fighting in slow motion compared to his form while in his prime. It was alarming to see Lucas getting hit by shots from Moyano, because these were punches that Lucas would have easily avoided in his youth.

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Unbeaten middleweight prospect David Lemieux (20-0, 20 KO’s) stopped Delray Raines (17-7, 12 KO’s) in the 2nd round to capture the vacant World Boxing Council Youth Intercontinental middleweight title. The knockout win kept the 21-year-old Lemieux’s perfect knockout string alive with 20 knockouts in 20 fights, albeit against mostly C level opposition. Lemieux, listed as 5’10 1/2″ looked at least five to six inches shorter than the 6’1″ Raines.

Based on how much shorter Lemieux looked compared to Raines and the 5’9″ Arian Diaconu who fought in the main event, I’d estimate that Lemieux is probably no taller than 5’8″, at best. Lemieux’s lack of height was a problem for him early in the 1st when Raines was raining jabs down at him at a regular basis. However, Raines was poor at tying Lemieux when he came inside looking to throw his bums.

Near the end of the round, Lemieux dropped Raines with a hard left hook to the head. Raines rolled over on the canvas and got to his feet looking hurt. Lemieux then got really sloppy and threw a massive amount of punches with most of them either missing or getting blocked on the gloves of Raines. Due to Lemieux’s wildness, Raines was able to get out of the round without going down again.

In between rounds, Lemieux’s trainer dressed him down about throwing so many wild punches. In the 2nd round, Lemieux dropped Raines with a hard left hook early in the round. This time, Lemieux stayed patient after the knockdown and focused on looking for one big shot. Shortly thereafter, backed Raines up against the ropes and nailed him with a hard left hook to the head that sent Raines down for the third and final time in the round. Referee Marlon Wright then stepped in and stopped the bout at 2:51 of the round.

Lemieux showed excellent power, but his lack of height will be a limiting factor for him in the future. He needs to move down in weight, preferably to the welterweight division. He looks much too short for the middleweight or even light middleweight division.