By Sam Gregory: In his fourth defense of his World Boxing Council (WBC) light heavyweight title Jean Pascal managed to retain his light heavyweight title in a closely fought majority decision that two ringside commentators scored for Pascal and press row had for Bernard Hopkins winning on two to one cards.

From the opening bell Pascal threw his punches with lightening speed described by commentators as “sneaky fast” he beat Hopkins to the punch with practically every exchange early in the fight. in the final seconds of round one Pascal caught Hopkins with a punch he clearly didn’t see coming that sent Hopkins to the canvas for the first time in 16 years.

Pascal used the entire ring moving from side to side to avoid being hit too cleanly by anything Hopkins had to offer; Pascal earned points in the early rounds countering off Hopkins punches.

In the third round Pascal scored another knockdown; from this point it appeared Pascal was going to walk away with the fight. Pascal looked like he was outworking the wily 45 year old former middleweight champ, former light heavyweight champ and soon to be Hall-of-Famer.

Than in the fourth round Hopkins stepped on the gas and turned the momentum of the fight his way. In the fourth round Hopkins started going to the body and landing the left hook. From the fourth round on Hopkins began dictating the offensive flow of the fight.

By round seven Hopkins took the crowd out of the fight, he looked more in control than in any point of the fight.

Going into round ten it was still a very close fight, and by the championship rounds it could have gone either way.

Before the start of the twelfth round both corners informed their fighters they needed either a knockout or to win the final round. The twelfth round was a very dramatic round with both men throwing and landing big punches.

After the 12th and final round the fight went to the judge’s scorecards:

Judge Claude Paquette scored the fight 113-113, Judge Daniel Van de Wiele scored the fight 114-114 and Judge Steve Morrow scored the fight 114-112 for Hopkins.

The fight ended in a majority draw with Jean Pascal retaining the light heavyweight title

In a fight that was very close two ringside commentators had Pascal winning, press row had Hopkins winning on 2 to one cards.

After the fight Jean Pascal’s record is 26-1-1 with 16 KO’s; Bernard Hopkins record is 51-5-2 with 32 KO’s