Hopkins-Pascal rematch ordered by the WBC

By Boxing News - 01/06/2011 - Comments

Image: Hopkins-Pascal rematch ordered by the WBCBy Jason Kim: As many people expected, the World Boxing Council (WBC) has ordered a rematch between WBC light heavyweight Jean Pascal (26-1-1, 16 KO’s) and 45–year-old Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KO’s) to settle the controversy over the 12 round majority draw that occurred on December 18th between the two fighters. Hopkins was dropped twice in the early rounds and had to work hard to make up for those knockdowns.

He eventually made it even at the end but Hopkins and some fans felt that he had done enough to get the win despite the earlier knockdowns. I personally felt that Hopkins didn’t do enough to win the fight, and it’s going to be interesting to see what happens with the rematch. The problem with the WBC ordering an immediate rematch is that Pascal already has a fight that he has to make with Chad Dawson, who was beaten by Pascal in a 11th round technical draw in August 2010.

Dawson had a rematch clause in the contract with Pascal, which means that unless Pascal fights Dawson next, he may open himself up for a lawsuit. However, if Pascal doesn’t fight Hopkins next, the WBC will likely strip Pascal of his WBC title. That puts Pascal in a real bind. Dan Rafael of ESPN reports that if HBO or Showtime aren’t interesting in paying the same amount as last time Dawson and Pascal fought, which was $2 million, for the clause to stay intact.

Showtime isn’t interested in the Dawson-Pascal fight and want to put on the Pascal-Hopkins rematch, as the ratings for their previous fight were the highest for boxing in the past three years for that network. This means that if the Dawson-Pascal rematch is to go ahead, HBO would have to be willing to pay the $2 million to show the fight. Will they do that when the original Dawson-Pascal fight failed to bring huge ratings? That’s the major question.

The winner of the Hopkins-Pascal II fight will be expected to face Dawson. However, it’s hard to see Hopkins taking that fight. If he captures Pascal’s WBC title, there’s a good chance that Hopkins will vacate the title rather than take on a difficult fighter like Dawson when it won’t bring him the kind of money that he wants. Hopkins would be better off vacating the WBC title and going after someone like IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute, WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward or Carl Froch. Those would be fights that would likely be bigger for Hopkins, although maybe not winnable ones because those fighters, unlike Pascal, are good offensively and don’t have problems pulling the trigger with their punches.



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