Jean Pascal vs. Bernard Hopkins Lands on Showtime

Added on Oct 19, 2010 by Brian Blake in

Boxing

Despite promising his late mother that he would retire from the ring by the time he turned 40, the 45 year old Bernard Hopkins will be taking on the current WBC Light Heavyweight Champion Jean Pascal this December at the Pepsi Coliseum in Pascal’s native Montreal, Canada.

The Haitan born Pascal quietly turned pro over five and a half years ago in his adopted land of Quebec where he quickly registered a second round knockout over Justin Hahn.

In just over a year Pascal toured the state showcasing his skill and power while ascending up the ranks before putting his undefeated record of 14-0 on the line as he challenged Jermain Mackey for the WBO NABO super middleweight belt. Despite being floored twice in the second round, Mackey would get back up to take Pascal the full twelve rounds for the first time in his career. At the end of twelve all three judges scored the bout as a shutout for Pascal.

Just two fights later Pascal would add the vacant NABA and NABF titles to his super middleweight collection with a tenth round TKO over last minute replacement Christian Cruz.

In December of 2008 Pascal entered the ring for what was then the biggest moment of his career as he challenged Carl Froch for the WBC Super Middleweight Championship in the champ’s hometown of Nottingham, England.

Pascal did his best over the course of twelve rounds but would ultimately come up short as the ringside judges scored the bout unanimously for Froch thus giving the Briton the recently vacated title.

Midway through last year Pascal made the jump to the light heavyweight division and immediately challenged Adrian Diaconu for the WBC’s crown in that divison. Any questions of whether Pascal’s power would follow him to the higher weight class was answered as he knocked the champion down in the second round and then cruised to pick up a major world title in his second attempt. A rematch was held later in the year and Pascal prevailed once again via unaimous decision this time with scores of a wider margin.

Pascal’s last outing took place in August as he suprised the boxing world with a performance that stifled the reign of Chad Dawson in the light heavyweight division.

Hopkins, the veteran challenger from the streets of Philly, has spent the past four years of his amazing career as a light heavyweight after back to back losses to Jermain Taylor ended his historic run as the World Middleweight Champion which included a record tying 20 consecutive title defenses.

With the exception of his bout with Enrique Ornelas, which was used as a stepping stone bout to get a long awaited rematch with Roy Jones, Hopkins has faced an impressive bunch of fighter in the 175 lb. division.

Following the tumult of the Taylor losses, he immediately took on Antonio Tarver, who at the time was widely considered to be the uncrowned kind of the divison. Hopkins turned back the clock as he piled up a large points lead ultimately giving him a one sided unanimous decision win.

His lone bout of 2007 came against former junior middleweight king Winky Wright and once again Hopkins registered a lopsided points win.

The following year Hopkins dropped a close and debated decision to “The Fighting Pride of Wales”, Joe Calzaghe.

Since the loss to Calzaghe in 2008, Hopkins has recorded three consecutive wins all by way of wide scores against Kelly Pavlik, Enrique Ornelas and most recently against Roy Jones Junior in a bout that didn’t come close to living up to the hype this past April.

The 12 round scheduled bout was originally set to be aired as a pay-per-view event but was leter reconsidered to air on Showtime at no additional charge.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer this important championship fight directly to our loyal subscribers and fight fans,” said Ken Hershman, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Showtime Sports. “This is a milestone fight for each man’s respective career and thus this matchup fits perfectly into our programming strategy-to televise the most competitive and meaningful bouts in the sport.”