Pascal is War Ready
On Saturday December 28, Jean Pascal (34-6-1, 20 KO’s) will make the first defense of his WBA world light heavyweight title against the challenge of Badou Jack “The Ripper” (22-2-3, 13 KO’s). Pascal managed to lift the belt off of “Sir” Marcus Browne (23-1, 16 KO’s) four month earlier in their bloody brawl in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
THE WBA BLOOD BELT
After a rather unpredictable, back-and-forth bout the fight prematurely went the cards in the 8th round due to a terrible cut suffered by Browne. Having floored Browne a total of three times, Pascal had amassed enough points to be awarded the title.
When the upbeat Canadian fighter went in to battle Browne he was the underdog. Little has changed, as Pascal is still receiving underdog treatment as he prepares for Jack.
“Badou Jack is a gentleman, he is a warrior like me. That’s going to be a great fight because styles make fights, he likes to fight, I like to fight.”
Well before Pascal, the Ripper defeated Nathan Cleverly to obtain the WBA light heavyweight title. However, the laid back boxer immediately lost it to “Sir” Marcus Browne when he sustained a ghastly laceration on his forehead.
Ironically, Browne would then immediately lose the belt in his very next fight to Pascal due to a bad cut. If Pascal losses the belt by way of a cut, folks might start attributing an Annabelle type hex to the title!
BETTING ON THE HOME TEAM
While he is more than cognizant of being labeled old and the underdog, Pascal does not really care. Having entered into the back-end of his career some time ago, the Canadian pugilist has generally been tabbed to lose over the last couple of years.
“To be the underdog is the story of my life, you know? Even for this fight I feel like I’m still the underdog, you know why? Because I’m fighting a Mayweather fighter, on a Mayweather card, on a Mayweather network, SHOWTIME, in the US. So I have all the odds against me one more time, so I trained like the underdog.”
Yet, Pascal stands confident by his heart, chin and impressive resume. Over the years Pascal has fought with Marcus Browne, Dmitry Bivol, Eleider Alvarez, Sergey Kovalev (twice), Lucien Bute, Bernard Hopkins (twice), Chad Dawson and Carl Froch. This is a stellar ledger!
However, its precisely because of this stern list of foes, and the tremendous wars attached, that cause people to believe that Pascal is well past his sell-by date. In the end, Pascal has remained optimistic and is choosing to bet on himself once again.
Luckily for the fans, we don’t have long to wait to see how and where the fighters and the WBA light heavyweight title land.
“I got things that you can’t teach: chin and heart… Badou might try to advise me, to box me, but he’s gonna see that I can do everything in the ring. I can bang, I can box, I’m ready for anything!”
By: Bakari Simpson
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