By Jason Kim: Former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal(27-2, 16 KO’s) bravely fought the last 8 rounds of his fight tonight against Aleksy Kuziemski (23-5, 7 KO’s) using only one arm after Pascal separated his left shoulder in the 4th round when he got his arm caught on the ring ropes while throwing a punch at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The injury didn’t really matter, because Pascal was able to beat the light hitting 35-year-old Kuziemski using just his right arm alone. The scoring of the fight was way off, however, because they had Pascal winning by the lopsided scores of 100-88, 98-90, 98-90.
Kuziemski fought well enough to earn a closer score than that, and Pascal wasn’t an impressive as the scores would have you believe. Even before he injured his left shoulder, he was having a lot of problems with Kuziemski’s high work rate. Pascal was fighting like he always does by fighting only in spurts and Kuziemski was constantly taking the fight to him before and after the injury.
Pascal knocked Kuziemski down in the 6th and 10th rounds. Kuziemski was knocked down in the 6th when he turned his back on Pascal and was walking towards his corner as if the round had ended. In the 10th, Pascal put Kuziemski with a badly telegraphed right hand that traveled a long distance before it connected to Kuziemski’s head.
Pascal looked rusty for not having fought since May of last year, and it’s a good thing he picked out a weak opponent like Kuziemski because he would have struggled against quality opposition tonight.
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Middleweight David Lemieux (28-2, 27 KO’s) destroyed Albert Ayrapetyan (20-4, 9 KO’s) in a 2nd round three knockdown performance. Lemieux put Ayrapetyan a couple times in the 1st round, and then finished the job in the 2nd with a right hand as Ayrapetyan was attempting to cover up on the ropes. The 5’8” Lemieux looked good but the victory told boxing zero because it was another weak opponent and Lemieux knocked him out so quickly that fans were never able to find out if Lemieux has fixed his stamina problems that has caused him to lose twice last year.
Lemieux put Ayrapetyan with a big left hook in the 1st round when he caught Ayrapetyan by the ropes. Later in the round, Lemieux knocked Ayrapetyan with a three punch combination. Ayrapetyan barely survived the round.
Lemieux’s next fight will be against Colombian Jose Miguel Torres (26-5, 23 KO’s).
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Light heavyweight Eleider Alvarez (11-0, 7 KO’s) disposed of Danny McIntosh (13-4, 7 KO’s) in a two knockdown victory. Alvarez put McIntosh down twice in the 8th round to get the knockout. The first knockdown came from a hard right hand that sent McIntosh down, and then a short while later, Alvarez sent McIntosh down with a really hard right hand.
Alvarez needs a lot of work if he wants to be able to beat the best fighters at light heavyweight. He’s got some skills, but he throws really wide shots that are easy to block, and his power isn’t great.
It’s possible that Alvarez could be WBC champion Chad Dawson, as he’s showing signs of slipping, but I think someone like Tony Bellew would knock this guy out. Alvarez is just too easy to hit and he doesn’t seem to react well when getting hit. McIntosh looked like the harder puncher in this fight, but Alvarez appeared to have a big weight advantage over him and that was a problem for McIntosh.
Other boxing action on the card:
Oscar Rivas KO 1 Laszlo Peczeli
Marc Pagcaliwangan TKO 1 Richard Voros
Andrew Gardiner TKO 3 Attila Tibor Nagy
Kevin Bizier UD 8 Doel Carrasquillo
Logan McGuinness UD 10 Carlos Manuel Reyes