Jean Pascal may have escaped Quebec City’s Pepsi Coliseum with his championship belts last weekend, but he didn’t escape his execution, he simply postponed it.
Now that three days have passed since Pascal battled Bernard Hopkins to a majority draw, the dust is beginning to settle. We have weathered the immediate storm of swirling rumors and conspiracies.
We know now that there wasn’t any tampering with official scorecards, nor did the WBC issue an immediate rematch following the fight.
Pascal and his team, led by promoter Yvon Michel, intend to honor their contractual obligation to make a rematch with Chad Dawson, who Pascal outclassed earlier this year to capture his light-heavyweight titles.
Then, only after Pascal-Dawson II concludes, will Michel look to put together Pascal-Hopkins II.
In his fight with Dawson, Pascal was seemingly cruising to victory, when he allowed his counterpart to come on strong in the later rounds before a clash of heads ended the bout in the eleventh.
At the time of the head-butt, Pascal was gassed. Even with plenty of rounds in the bank, Pascal was going to struggle to make it through the rest of the fight. All he had to do was get on his bike — but there was barely any air left in his tires.
Ultimately, the cut over Dawson’s eye due to the clash of heads prevented the final four minutes of the fight from ever taking place, and it resulted in a Pascal victory.
Since it had already been a knock on Pascal that he fades in the mid-to-late rounds of fights — and seeing how strong Dawson came on late in his most recent fight before Hopkins — you would think Pascal and his team would address his stamina and make it a non-issue.
Not the case. After sending the old man to the canvas twice in the first three rounds, albeit — never hurting Hopkins, Pascal seemed to be befuddled by Hopkin’s work-ethic and work-rate, almost in awe of what the soon to be forty-six year old was doing.
The charges forward that had been so successful against “Bad Chad” in June were few and far between in the Hopkins fight. B-Hop played matador to Pascal’s bull.
Pascal’s punch output, which was never something to awe at anyway, was limited to only 30 per round against Hopkins. He averaged slightly over forty against Dawson.
The Philadelphia native battered Pascal’s body with vicious punches, no doubt contributing to Pascal’s minimal punch output.
When the final bell concluded, after a both fighter’s went at one another for the full three minutes,
Judge Steve Morrow of the United States scored the match 114-112, Hopkins. While Canada’s Claude Paquette and Belgium’s Dan Van De Wielle saw the bout a draw, 114-114 and 113-113, respectively.
From my seat in front of my 52” TV, I scored the bout 114-112, Hopkins. I gave the first three rounds to Pascal, two of them 10-8 due to knockdowns. I also gave Pascal the eight round.
The other eight rounds went to Hopkins, all by scores of 10-9.
But with that said, had I given Pascal round twelve, which was as close as close can be, or any other round I scored for Hopkins, my score card would have read like that of the Belgian judge’s.
So did I think Hopkins won the fight, absolutely. Do I think a draw was highway robbery? No, not really.
To be honest, I fully expected Claude Paquette’s card to read something like 116-111, Pascal, and was pleased when Jimmy Lennon Jr. announced he saw the fight even.
But the unfortunate fact in all of this is that Hopkins cannot fight on forever. He’s been playing the 18th hole of his career for a few years now. At some point, all athletes have to leave Neverland.
At his age, another eight months or so before he gets another crack at Pascal could mean a lot. You never know when or if Hopkins will one day look old overnight.
Even still, there is little doubt in my mind that if the two meet again next year, Hopkins will best him again.
The problem is, I’m not sold Pascal-Hopkins II happens.
Hopkins is well-versed in boxing history, he is a true student of the game. Leading up to this bout, the Executioner was motivated by history — working hard to become the oldest champion in boxing history. That record meant everything to Hopkins.
“I’ll walk through fire with gasoline shoes on to get that,” Hopkins said before the fight.
And he pretty much did. Besides touching the canvas twice, Hopkins did all that could be expected of a fighter his age. His resiliency and performance undoubtedly earned him a rematch, if not an outright victory.
But the scorecards will forever remained unchanged and BHop will have to be patient for another chance to “execute” Pascal.
Only problem is, when that time comes around, Dawson may have already done the honors.
You can reach Kyle Kinder at Twitter.com/KyleKinder or KyleKinder1@gmail.com
