Saturday nights in Montreal are normally reserved for Canadiens hockey, but on this dark and gloomy Saturday the crowd of just over 11,000 inside the Bell Centre were treated to slugfest between light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev from Russia and the adopted hometown hero Jean Pascal.
Kovalev (27-0-1, 24 KOs) defended his WBO, WBA and IBF light heavyweight titles by mercilessly stalking and punishing the crowd favorite, becoming the first to ever stop the cagey Pascal (29-3-1, 17 KOs), who makes Montreal his home by way of Haiti.
They stood and cheered Pascal for every movement he made throughout the fight trying to instill the motivation needed to stand up to the Russian “Krusher” machine. Even the ringwalk was something out of a rock concert. The house lights were dimmed and a video image of Pascal appeared though a platform with full band playing. When the door opened and fans got a first glimpse of Pascal, the cheers drowned out the live music accompanying the challenger’s entrance.
Going into the fight, Pascal – the WBC champion at 175lbs from 2009 through 2011 – tried to turn the storyline into a Rocky theme by stitching “Black Balboa” on his trunks. However, more fitting film titles could have been “Dead Man Walking”: Pascal was clearly a limp body in round three when Kovalev was teeing off hard right hands that sounded like gunshots as they bounced off of Pascal’s head.
Towards the end of the round Pascal almost flew head first between the ropes on to the heads of photographers. Hanging in between the middle and top ropes and unable to defend himself, the referee pulled Kovalev off and counted it a knockdown against Pascal.
Pascal was saved by the bell and Kovalev almost made a fatal mistake letting his opponent past the third round. Although Kovalev had another monster round in the fourth, he just couldn’t put Pascal away. Pascal started timing Kovalev’s punches and was landed strong right-hand counter shots.
Pascal had a big round five and gave his fans something to really cheer for by attacking Kovalev to the body and making the Russian fight on his heels. Now it was sometimes “Rocky” and sometimes “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”: It seemed as if Kovalev had no answer for Pascal’s awkward lunging right hand which came from a low crouching stance.
The crowd made plenty of noise when Pascal connected with the looping right hand, but Kovalev displayed he has a granite chin to go along with hands of concrete.
In the seventh round Kovalev started to time Pascal’s wild and awkward lunges by moving his head away from the big right hands. A large red knot started to form under Kovalev’s left each above his cheek. Kovalev ended the round by stalking Pascal around the ring. Pascal ended the round breathing very hard though his mouth.
Kovalev came out of his corner very aggressively to start round eight and walloped Pascal with a brutal right cross that jerked Pascal’s head back. Kovalev went on the offensive and fired away jabs and right hooks leveling Pascal again. Kovalev reached back for a finishing last shot but missed and slipped down to the canvas. The referee quickly ruled it a slip and ordered Pascal to let Kovalev stand up.
Pascal quietly walked over to a neutral corner and just stood there. While the crowd was trying to figure out what was happening, Kovalev pointed to the referee to check on Pascal in the corner. The referee ignored Kovalev’s request so Kovalev charged in after Pascal and wound up uncoiling his rocket launcher right hand and leveling Pascal in the side of the head. The air was let out of the Bell Centre. Kovalev connected another right hand and the referee jumped in to stop the fight, much to the chagrin of the crowd.
With the crowd booing, a jubilant Kovalev celebrated the victory and undoubtedly was thankful the seesaw battle was finally over.
“I don’t like when they boo me,” Kovalev said of the crowd. “As an amateur I fought all over the world and beat champions in their hometown with everyone against me so I am used to proving people wrong.”
