By Eric Thomas: WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal defeated Chad Dawson tonight by a controversial 11 round technical decision at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada. With former two time light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson trailing in the fight in the 11th, he badly hurt WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal with a flurry of shots and had him dead on his feet. However, Pascal then charged Dawson and accidentally head butted him, opening up a huge cut on above the eye of Dawson. The ringside doctor then stopped the fight, thus saving Pascal from what appeared to be an almost certain knockout loss. The ending of the fight reminded me a lot of the controversy surrounding the Librado Andrade vs. Lucian Bute fight.
Pascal won many of the earlier rounds based on aggression alone, as Dawson just wasn’t letting hands go until the 10th round when it was clear that he was well behind in the fight. Pascal began to immediately wither under Dawson’s firepower and started playing rope-a-dope and doing little. Dawson dominated the 10th, and had Pascal on the verge of being knocked out in the 11th when Pascal quickly turned into Dawson with the top of his head like a little bull and landed a beautiful head butt to the eyelid of Dawson, opening up a huge cut. The doctor then stepped in and stopped the fight and thus it went to the cards.
Although Dawson fought horribly through most of the fight, he was still on the verge of knocking Pascal out in the 11th when Dawson finally opened up with his offense for the first time in the fight. However, that accidental head butt from Pascal was a thing of a beauty, a real life savor tonight. I would favor Dawson in a rematch if he let his hands go like he did in the 10th and 11th rounds. Pascal was both exhausted and hurt in the 11th, and it would have taken a miracle for him to make it out of the round. It’s too bad the doctor didn’t let Dawson finish Pascal off, because he was badly hurt despite the beautiful head butt he accidentally landed.
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