By William Mackay: WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1, 16 KO’s), after beating Chad Dawson by an 11 round technical decision last Saturday night in Montreal, said “I’d defend this title against Carl Froch, but it would have to be in Canada, according to the Telegraph.co.uk. Froch defeated Pascal by a 12 round unanimous decision two years ago in December 2008. Froch wore Pascal down and punished him in the second half of the fight to get the win.
However, if Pascal wants to fight Froch again, he may have to wait awhile before he can do so, because Dawson had a rematch clause in his contract with Pascal. But there are other obstacles as well that could prevent a rematch between Pascal and Froch.
For one, Froch has a fight coming up on October 2nd in the Super Six tournament against Arthur Abraham, and many boxing fans and writers think Froch will lose that fight.
Yesterday, Froch had this to say: “I will beat Abraham and go through to the semis. I could lose to him and still go through, but I am a winner. If I’m not winning then I don’t want to be involved [in boxing]. My only defeat was to Mikkel Kessler but because of the ash fall-out from Iceland, everything was at the last minute. It took my sharpness away, but this time it’s going to be different. I have belief in myself to get back to winning ways. If I cannot be a winner I don’t want to be in the sport hanging around.”
Whether Froch means that he’ll quit if he loses to Abraham or if he means that he’ll quit if he continues to lose is not known. But you can imagine that Froch will take it very hard if he ends up getting knocked out by Abraham, which is a very real possibility given Froch’s poor defense and Abraham’s tremendous power.
And besides, Froch possibly getting beaten by Abraham, there’s also a good chance that Pascal will lose to Dawson in their rematch. To be sure, Pascal defeated Dawson by close scores on two of the judges’ cards last Saturday night, but that was with Dawson fighting passively. At the time of the stoppage in the 11th, Dawson was giving Pascal pure hell and it looked like he could have taken him out had the fight gone longer.
In a rematch, if Dawson fights aggressively instead of just jabbing, he could knock Pascal out next time. As you can see, there are a number of things that could get in the way of a rematch between Froch and Pascal. But if they’re both open to still fighting coming off losses, then this fight is very doable in the future.
That might be the best bet for this fight, because I can’t see Froch beating Abraham and I also don’t think Pascal could duplicate his win over Dawson in a rematch. Next time I see Pascal getting knocked out quickly.
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