Friday nights WBC Light Heavyweight championship fight between undefeated champion Adrian “The Shark” Diaconu (26-0-15KO) and challenger Jean Pascal (22-1-15KO) lived up to the hype and was a great action fight. I was really looking forward to watching this fight and it certainly did not disappoint. Both fighters are based in Montreal and since the fight took place in the Bell Centre in Montreal there was a great crowd on hand cheering their fighters. You didn’t have to worry about a hometown decision this time. I knew beforehand Pascal’s speed and movement was going to be the key factor in the fight and it was. Pascal was moving up from the super middleweight division and brought all of his speed with him. I have to say I was always impressed with Jean Pascal up until his fight with Omar Pittman. Pascal had a disappointing appearance and seemed to struggle and was hurt by the journeyman fighter with little power. I wasn’t sure where Pascal was going to go after that but then he redeemed himself with a great action fight with WBC Super Middleweight champ Carl Froch. Even in losing the decision I thought Pascal gave a very good performance and showed more toughness than I would have given him credit for. He also brought that toughness up into last nights fight. I knew Diaconu had the edge in power, being the natural light heavyweight, and if he were to win the fight it would probably have to be by knockout.
Pascal started out fast in round one showcasing his superior speed landing some hard right hands and moving right back out of Diaconu’s punching range. Pascal likes to stay back out of range then suddenly rush in with combinations, and then he is out again. He keeps his hands very low, which could be very dangerous against a faster opponent, but Diaconu was having trouble landing anything with any significance early on. The two of them traded very good shots in the third round as Diaconu seemed to have found his range and was starting to come on in the fight. The fifth round was highly entertaining as Pascal dropped the champion with a left hook. Diaconu didn’t appear too hurt but Pascal rushed him and landed a few more solid right hands which ended with Diaconu down on his knees but referee Marlon Wright didn’t call it a knockdown. It could have been argued either way. Then towards the end of the round Diaconu stunned Pascal with a right hand and I was worried Pascal was going to go down (I was pulling for Pascal to win as Diaconu usually bores me in his fights). Pascal survived the round and came right back with a strong sixth round. Throughout the next couple rounds the two fighters had great exchanges both landing hard shots. I am surprised that Pascal stood and fought a lot of the times with the stronger champion, but he did. Pascal was seeming to tire towards the championship rounds and Diaconu stunned him in the eleventh and was looking like he was on his way to a TKO. To Pascal’s credit each time he was hurt he came right back with intensity. In my gut I was worried that Pascal was not going to survive the twelfth but he did and looked every bit like the champion he was about to become. Pascal got the unanimous decision with scores of 115-112, 116-112, and 116-111.
It was a good win for Jean Pascal and shows that he can be a threat in the light heavyweight division.
On the undercard season 4 Contender champion Troy Ross took on journeyman Michael Simms in a ten round cruiserweight fight. Simms was coming into the fight with 10 losses but had never been stopped before. So even though Ross can pack a punch I knew he was going to have to win by decision. Ross did exactly what you have to do against Simms and did pound out a workmanlike decision victory. Ross’s right eye started closing early in the fight and he was later cut by an accidental headbutt, but neither seemed to deter him his gameplan of swarming Simms and landing power hooks and body shots on the inside. Simms was never able to assert himself or get himself into the fight and it was a near shutout for the Canadian cruiserweight. It was a good night of boxing for the Canadian fighters.
Yesterday in Germany IBF/WBO Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko completely dominated Ruslan Chagaev on his way to a 10th round TKO victory. The fight was stopped between rounds just as the bell for the 10th rang. Chagaev had a nasty cut over his left eye and was never in the fight at all. The fight was every bit as dull as I had expected. Right from round one Klitschko mostly just used the left jab to dominate the fight, staying on the outside and fighting a typical "careful" Wladimir fight. Chagaev could not get inside and never found his range. Chagaev was dropped in the second round by a big Klitschko right hand. Most of the fight was just watching Klitschko's left hand at work, with the occasional right thrown in. By the 9th round he really started giving Chagaev a beating and to my joy Chagaev never came out for the 10th. He never looked in trouble of being knocked out but he was getting beaten up. Not a really satisfying result for me but it will have to do. Where does Klitschko go from here? Not sure I even care...aside from David Haye I can't even think of another heavyweight fighter I have any interest in watching well except for the great James Toney. I'd like Wladimir to fight Chris Arreola just so people would finally see how horrible Arreola is when Wlad KO's him and stop talking about him like he is the next great thing.
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