Kovalev can become WBC mandatory with win over Pascal tonight

By Boxing News - 03/14/2015 - Comments

kovalev3677By Dan Ambrose: IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KOs) can put himself in position to get a shot at the WBC 175 pound title if he defeats challenger Jean Pascal (29-2-1, 17 KOs) tonight in their fight on HBO Championship Boxing from the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.

The World Boxing Council mandated that Kovalev will become the WBC 175 mandatory challenge if he defeats Pascal tonight. Pascal decided that he doesn’t want to be included on being able to fight for the WBC title, so even if he wins tonight, he won’t be the mandatory for the WBC title. It’s unclear why Pascal made that move. It’s anyone’s guess.

The WBC light heavyweight title is currently held by Adonis Stevenson of Canada. If he chooses not to fight Kovalev, then the WBC title will be stripped from Stevenson and it’ll be available for Kovalev to fight for against the next highest contender. That would be #1 WBC Eleider Alvarez.

“I haven’t talked to them since (Stevenson promoter) Yvon Michel told me that everything was fine (with the Kovalev-Stevenson fight),” said Kovalev’s promoter Kathy Duva via RingTV.com. “Can it [Kovalev vs. Stevenson] happen? Mayweather-Pacquiao was made. Anything is possible. I think Sergey will fight for the WBC title, though. If Stevenson doesn’t want to fight Sergey, the title will be vacated. Then he’ll fight someone else for the title.”

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If Stevenson chooses to vacate his WBC title rather than face Kovalev, he’ll be pretty much locked out for all of the light heavyweight titles, unless he wants to go after the WBA regular light heavyweight belt held by Jurgen Braehmer.

I wish Stevenson a lot of luck trying to get a shot at that belt. I can’t see Braehmer’s promoters giving Stevenson a shot at that belt until he becomes the mandatory challenger.

Unless the World Boxing Association gives Stevenson a quick No.1 ranking, he’ll likely have to wait a couple of years before he gets ranked at No.1. By then, Stevenson will be 39-years-old. I can see him still beating Braehmer at that point in his career, but he’ll have to wait around until then, because there’s no way Braehmer will give Stevenson a shot at his title in a voluntary defense.

Kovalev has to get past Pascal tonight for him to worry about trying to get a shot at the WBC title. Pascal is an elusive fighter when he wants to be, and I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot of movement from Pascal tonight. He’s not going to want to stand in front of Kovalev, so I think this is going to turn into a track meet with Pascal running from Kovalev to keep from getting nailed.

With the fight being in Canada, Pascal might assume that he can win the fight by being elusive, landing pot shots, and avoiding the thunderous shots from Kovalev. We’ve seen some controversial decision wins for Canadian fighters in the past, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Kovalev finds himself on the losing end of a controversial decision tonight if he can’t score a knockout against Pascal.

Yes, it’ll make Pascal look bad if he wins a controversial decision, but I think at this point he won’t care. He’ll take his victory and move on and look to setup a big money unification fight against Adonis Stevenson.



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