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Cloutier’s Canada Corner
Pascal & Kovalev Ready For War
By Daniel Cloutier
MONTRÉAL - The more the moment of the truth is close, the
more the Montrealer Jean Pascal is persuaded he will
dethrone the Russian Sergey Kovalev as WBA, WBO and IBF
light heavyweight champion of the world January 30th in the
ring of the Bell Centre in Montréal.
It will be a rematch. March 14th 2015, again at Bell Centre,
Kovalev (28-0-1) proceed to a successful first defense of
his triple crowns, in beating Pascal (30-3-1), a former WBC
175 pounds world champion, by TKO in the eighth round. For
Pascal, it was the first defeat by TKO in his boxing career.
And January 30th, Pascal will fight for the first time with
a new trainer in his corner, the Californian Freddie Roach,
the trainer of Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, Guillermo
Rigondeaux, Ismael Vasquez, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Peter
Quillin and Amir Khan.
“I got a very good training camp, and more the moment of the
thruth is close, more I have the conviction I will take my
revenge on Kovalev, said Pascal in French Tuesday afternoon
in a conference call organized by InterBox. I have a great
relation with Roach. He understands me, I understand him. I
am positive that our strategy for this rematch gonna work.
We have a good fight’s plan. I am so motivated to fight
Kovalev for a second time. I know he is racist, I know he
has no respect for the black people, then, I want to give
him a lesson he will remember until the end of his boxing
career. If my fans were disappointed by my performance in
the first match up for Kovalev, trust me, they will
appreciate what I’m gonna do this time. I know perfectly
what I did wrong last March, and I won’t repeat these errors
January 30th.”
Kovalev, obviously, does not appreciate at all the Pascal’s
comments. For him, its vicious comments, “Pascal said I am
not a star on the international level and I am a racist
fighter, and it’s absolutely ridiculous, said the Russian.
Pascal loves to talk trash... and I love to hurt him with my
fists. I hurt him seriously in the eight round in our first
fight, and I am positive I will hurt him seriously again…
and probably sooner in the bout. Pascal said he has a good
fight’s plan? I don’t care. I don’t need one. If the bout is
transformed in a street fight, perfect, I like fights
turning in a street fight, fight open and violent. You know
me, I am a natural attacker.”
Clearly, Kovalev and Pascal are ready for a war… the war
number two on HBO. Pascal criticized the Puerto Rican
referee Luis Pabon, who stopped him in the eight round March
14th, and declared him TKO.
“Pascal should not criticized the referee, he should thanks
him, said Kovalev. In stopping the bout, the referee
prevented Pascal to be injured seriously. All my punches
were hurting him few seconds before the end of the bout. All
the boxing fans who were watching the fight, knows that
Pascal was really in trouble when the referee stopped the
bout. Few punches more, and Pascal was on the floor for the
count of 10.”
Roach is persuaded that Pascal will impress his fans this
time. “Jean got a got training camp, and during the last two
months, he made some technical adjustments in the ring which
will help him a lot in this rematch, said Roach. Jean showed
me great things in each sparring sessions. And I know how
much Jean is motivated to win this rematch. I saw his huge
enthusiast before each training day. No doubt in my mind,
January 30th, Jean will be a lot of more efficient than he
was in his first match up with Kovalev. He knows exactly
what to do to embarrassed Kovalev in each round. I am very
impatient to see the fight starts.”
John David Jackson, the Kovalev’s trainer, has no doubt that
his fighter gonna dominate and beat Pascal again. “In the
first fight, Sergey showed clearly he was not intimidate at
all to fight in Montréal, and he gonna show it again January
30th, said Jackson. I am sure Sergey will dominate the
action again, and win by TKO again. And I won’t be surprised
at all if it’s earlier this time. Sergey knows always what
to do to win fights, than, I am not worry at all. And with
his trash comments, Pascal found the way to increase the
Sergey’s motivation. Sergey is not over confident, he is
just more hungry and motivate to dominate and beat Pascal.
You will see the result in two weeks….”
Pierre Duc, the vice-president of InterBox, is more
persuaded than ever that this rematch will draw a bigger
crowd than the first time.
“We got a crowd of about 8,000 March 14th, and I am more and
more persuaded we will draw over 9,000 or 10,000 boxing fans
in two weeks, said Duc. It’s obvious that this rematch is
creating an interest in Canada, and specially in Montréal.”
Kovalev and Pascal, who got their training camp in USA, will
arrive next Sunday in Montréal. Monday afternoon, both will
take part to a public training session, hold at the
restaurant La Cage aux Sports of Boucherville, just beside
the InterBox head office. Boucherville is an Eastern
Montréal suburb.
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