By Daniel Tagg: From the recent fights last weekend, I have noticed that World Boxing Council (WBC) light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1-1, 16 KO’s) has somewhat of an stamina problem and this has nearly cost him his title against 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins. With the way that Pascal looked in this fight, his luck won’t last forever.

When Pascal fought Hopkins, like the judges, I scored it as a draw. Pascal had won the first 5 rounds with rounds one and three going 10-8 due to the knockdowns that occurred. I then had Hopkins winning the last 7 rounds. This was due in part to Pascal simply not throwing enough punches from rounds 6 on. This was the same thing had happened before in Pascal’s last bout against Chad Dawson. In that fight, Dawson was coming on strong in the last few rounds but ran out of luck when he got cut from a head butt in the 11th round. Who really knows what would have happened had the cut not occurred. But I’m sure Dawson would have caused some problems for Pascal just like Carl Froch and Hopkins did.

I’m sure I’m not the only person to have noticed Pascal’s stamina problems, and now trainers will likely instruct their fighters to suit this. Pascal needs some stamina and needs it quick. Unless he fixes it soon, he will only have a short time before he gets beat. It seems that Froch will move up to light heavyweight after the Super Six tournament ends next year. Froch has great stamina and a great work rate. This was Pascal’s undoing when they meet last time and it will likely happen again should they meet for a rematch.