Jean Pascal and Bernard Hopkins WBC Light Heavyweight Title Recap

Added on Dec 21, 2010 by Brian Blake in

Boxing

Canadian fight fans came out in droves to support their countryman, Jean Pascal, as he put his WBC Light Heavyweight crown on the line against the veteran warrior in Bernard Hopkins this past weekend at the Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec City.

The atmosphere was electric in anticipation of the Showtime televised event as both fighters made their way to the squared circle with the crowd clearly in support of Pascal while the visiting Hopkins managed to find some supporters of his own in a foreign land.

Things started off well for Pascal in the biggest fight Canada has hosted since Muhammad Ali took on George Chuvalo in 1966 and again in 1972. The hard hitting Pascal wasted no time in taking the fight to the wily counter punching Hopkins and floored Hopkins, who had not been knocked down since his bout with Segundo Mercado almost 16 years ago to the day. Hopkins quickly picked himself off of the canvas after the well placed right hand which Hopkins claimed to have landed on the back of his head.

The 45 year old Hopkins fared a touch better in the second round as he remained on his feet and was productive enough to earn the round on one of the judges scorecards. However, things shifted back in favor of the Haitian born champion as he found Hopkins on the ropes and caught the challenger with a left hook that once again sent Hopkins to the canvas. A grinning Hopkins then gestured to referee that it was a slip. Nonetheless, he was given the mandatory standing eight count and Pascal was credited with his second knockdown of the night.

Gradually the night began to slip away from Pascal as Hopkins body work in the early rounds began to pay off and the champion began to tire. Hopkins continued to effectively counter shots thrown by Pascal which seemed to lose steam with each passing round.

As was the case early in the fight, Pascal was no longer charging in and pressing the action. Hopkins began to control the tempo of the fight as his edge in experience became more evident as the fight progressed. At the end of twelve rounds it was clear that the judges had their work cut out for them and the crowd of over 16,000 sat in anticipation while the scores were tallied and ultimately read by veteran ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr.

At the end of 12 hard fought back and forth rounds judge Steve Morrow had the bout scored at 114-112 in favor of Hopkins. However he was overruled by judges Claude Paquette and Daniel Van de Wiele who scored the bout 113-113 and 114-114, respectively, resulting in the bout being declared a majority draw.

Neither camp was thrilled with the result and it didn’t take long before talks of a rematch were thrown about.

However, the champion looks to be contractually obligated to give former champion a rematch following Pascal’s surprisingly one sided decision win over Dawson back in August.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO, Richard Schaefer, was visibly disappointed with the outcome as well as the prospect of Pascal rematching Dawson and even went as far as threatening lawsuits. That quickly came to an end as it now appears that Hopkins could find himself back in the ring in 2011 to once again chase history, this time challenging Tavoris Cloud for his IBF portion of the light heavyweight championship.

With such a close fight the first time around, assuming that both Pascal and Hopkins come away from their respective bouts victorious, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find both men in the ring again next year in a unification match.