By Jason Kim: Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime – WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (27-1, 20 KO’s) is picking World Boxing Council (WBC) light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1, 17 KO’s) to defeat 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KO’s) on Saturday night in their bout at the Pepsi Coliseum, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Froch, 33, previously defeated Pascal by a 12 round unanimous decision in December 2008, so he knows what Pascal brings to the table.

Froch said “I think Jean Pascal will take this on points. I think the wily fox [Hopkins] has a few gray whiskers now and he may be cute in the opening rounds, but Jean Pascal’s sheer will to win can be what seals the deal. If you add in the fantastic Canadian boxing fans, all screaming their lungs out for whatever Pascal does in every rounds, then it’s going to be a very big ask for Hopkins to pull it off.”

Indeed, Hopkins will be entering a hostile arena for this fight and that could be a problem for him because he’s not used to being the visiting fighter and he may not know how to react at hearing a lot of booing from the Pascal fans. The crowd noise will give the faster and stronger Pascal more energy to fight, and he’s already going to have a big advantage in those areas as well as stamina compared to Hopkins.

With Pascal throwing a lot of fast shots and being active for the entire three minutes of every round, it’s going to be plenty tough for Hopkins to deal with all that. His only recourse will be to try and slow the fight down, take the crowd out of the fight by clinching Pascal constantly and turning the bout into a wrestling fight. It may be an incredibly ugly fight unless Pascal is quick enough to avoid being grabbed by Hopkins all fight long.