By Dan Ambrose: Tomorrow night, former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (29-2-1, 17 KOs) is going to be really up against it in his fight against IBF/WBA/WBO 175 pound champion Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KOs) in their fight on HBO Championship Boxing from the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada.
Pascal is going to be getting hit by a lot of hard shots in this fight, and it’s going to be difficult for him to be able to stand in the pocket long enough to win rounds. Kovalev has major knockout power in both of his hands, and he’s going to be bouncing his shots off the head and body of Pascal.
While Pascal does take a good shot when it comes to getting hit to the head, he’s rarely been tested to the body. On Saturday night, Kovalev is going to be hitting Pascal with head and body shots, and we’re going to see if the 32-year-old Pascal will be able to hold up under the fire power.
Pascal hasn’t been fighting a lot lately. The rust factor is something that could very well come into play in this fight for Pascal. He fought 12 rounds against what has to be seen as a sparring partner in Lucian Bute last year in January. That wasn’t even a fight, because Bute fought like he was scared out of his wits to try and throw anything back at Pascal.
The fight looked like a glorified sparring match between friends rather than an actual fight. In Pascal’s last fight against Roberto Bolonti last December, the bout ended during the 2nd round after Pascal hit Bolonti hit in the back of the head during a clinch. The fight didn’t even go two full rounds.
With all the rust and inactivity that Pascal has had, he’s really asking a lot of his body to face a killer puncher like Kovalev on Saturday. What Pascal really needs is several tune-up fights against progressively better opposition before taking on a fight of this magnitude, because Pascal is coming into the fight like a retired fighter trying to make a comeback.
It’s very rare that retired fighters are able to make anything happen when they return to the ring after a long layoff, and I think that’s going to be the case with Pascal. He’s had exactly four fights in four years, and none of the opposition he’s faced are what you can call good fighters. Pascal has had four mediocre opponents in four years, and now he’s facing Kovalev. That’s not good.
Kovalev needs to push the pace against Pascal in order to take advantage of the Canadian based fighters’ ring rust. Pascal will be looking to conserve his energy and fight in spurts, and that’s something that Kovalev needs to prevent.
The Russian fighter has to stay on top of Pascal and keep him under fire and on the run for three minutes of every round. Pascal was unnerved in his last real fight against Bernard Hopkins four years ago when Hopkins took control of the fight with his ring generalship to win a 12 round decision.
Kovalev needs to fight with confidence and return fire each time Pascal lands anything. He can’t let him get any momentum in this fight.
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