“Krusher” punished Pascal for seven rounds before the fight was finally stopped to save the challenger from further damage in front of a passionate crowd at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
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Roach even asked the referee to watch his fighter closely before the start of the seventh round because he was anxious about his fighter’s health. Pascal should attempt to dig into the body while he is either on the inside or in clinches with the Russian, as all the significant shots Pascal landed in his first meeting with Kovalev were mostly head shots. After watching the first fight again before I wrote this preview, something stuck out to me: Pascal fought his best fight by just getting to the eighth round.
Pascal (30-4-1) seemed to abandon any idea of attack, throwing only occasional punches while absorbing a beating round after round from the hard-hitting Kovalev. Roach had only eight weeks to transform Pascal, and that clearly wasn’t enough time.
But on the fifth, Kovalev could stop doing anything so the Laval had nothing more to offer. The latest fight was a rematch of his bout with the 33-year-old Canadian that took place last March. When I’m in Montreal, everyone said to me, “Kick his ass.'” That is exactly what he did. In other words, Kovalev is a better slugger than Pascal. After that, and perhaps one more tune-up, Ward could sign to fight Kovalev.
Joel Diaz (21-0), a light welterweight co-promoted by Pascal, stopped Abraham Gomez (13-21-3) of Mexico in the second round of a scheduled six-round bout.
One would probably assume that means 147 pounds, if a clash with Marquez, who has never weighed more than 144.5 pounds for a fight and spent much of his career below 140, has any possibility of coming together. It would be a classic match of styles-Ward’s boxing skills and athleticism against Kovalev’s precision firepower-and a fight of huge attraction to boxing fans everywhere.
“Kovalev is a great champion”.
Kovalev had a statistically dominant performance, not that you need stats if you saw the fight. “I’m happy that I did it”.
Whether or not the two end up fighting, we know there is beef between them.
During his interview with HBO’s Max Kellerman, Kovalev comically taunted lineal light-heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson, by calling him “Adonis Chickenson” and bafflingly making duck noises.
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More intriguing is the prospect of a Kovalev bout against Andre Ward, the undefeated (28-0, 15 KOs) super middleweight champion now moving up to the light heavweight division. The first problem was Kovalev’s side saying Stevenson was ducking them. Post-fight antics did inevitably ensue as Adonis Stevenson, who has had a maddening song and dance with Kovalev for years, stormed the ring posturing as a tough guy.
