“If he thinks he’s coming to my town and my country to take my belt…he’s crazy” – Jean Pascal
Jean Pascal lived up his words tonight in his Montreal hometown by fighting through fatigue to out work American Chad Dawson for a technical decision win and light-heavyweight supremacy.
As he promised, Dawson began the fight pumping quick double and triple jabs. Pascal fought off the backfoot and did well launching forward with left and right hooks which drove Dawson back on his heels. None of the shots landed clean, but the aggression elicited loud cheers from Pascal’s hometown crowd. In round two Pascal held his advantage with well-timed counter hooks to the body and counter straights off Dawson’s jab. Dawson’s hesitancy to exchange with Pascal caused him to drop another round simply due to not throwing enough punches.
Bad Chad settled down more in round three and landed a good right hook to the body which made Pascal hold momentarily. Midway in the round, Pascal exploded with a four punch hook combination to the body that made the challenger double over and cower. For the rest of the round, Dawson simply followed Pascal around the ring and covered up whenever Pascal flurried at him. An isolated left hook was the only significant shot from Dawson to end the round.
Pascal got too comfortable early in the fourth and ate a left hook that stunned him. The shot had Pascal gun-shy until the final 20 seconds when he smashed home a straight right into Dawson’s face which may have been enough to steal the round.
By the sixth Pascal had slowed just enough for Dawson to begin landing counters. Pascal’s charges were now being met with superb check right hooks. In the last minute, Dawson clipped Pascal with a straight left and followed up with a right hook. In the seventh, Dawson suffered another defensive lapse and was stunned by a right hand. Fortunately for the challenger, Pascal’s followup offense was too sloppy and Dawson easily slipped the punches against the ropes. Dawson’s trainer Eddie Mustafa Muhammad wisely told his man that Pascal was tiring. But the veteran trainer and former world champion added that without any significant combinations he would lose. Dawson nodded in agreement and assured his team he had matters under control.
Jean Pascal nearly ended matters in round eight with the sustained power behind his right hook. The shots repeatedly rocked Dawson and had the Connecticut southpaw holding on for dear life and desperately complaining to the referee about fouls. The crowd sensed their man was close to victory and rose to their feet as Dawson barely made it out of the round.
In the championship rounds Chad Dawson had a knockout victory waiting for him that he refused to capitalize on. Pascal was dazed in both the 10th and 11th every time Dawson threw a meaningful combination. And each time, Dawson would relent and let his opponent recover. The 11th featured an early straight left hand that had Pascal reeling against the ropes. The defending champion barely escaped out of the corner and was shaken again by a jarring left uppercut. But as he had done throughout the fight, Chad Dawson stared at his work and failed to issue the coup de grace shot to save his undefeated record.
Disaster struck for Dawson when one of Pascal’s errant charges resulted in a head clash and opened a nasty, jagged cut above’s Dawson’s right eye. The gushing injury caused the ringside physician to immediately call the fight. According to protocol, the judges went to scorecards including the partially completed 11th.
The decision read 108-101,106-103 and 106-103 all for Jean Pascal, who retained his WBC belt and picked up recognition from RING magazine as the best light-heavyweight in the world.
“He seemed really tired to me, I could feel it,” Pascal told HBO’s Larry Merchant in the post-fight interview. “I’m the best in town and the best in the world. If Lucian Bute wants to fight me he has to challenge me. I want the best in the world [whether] it’s Hopkins or Calzaghe…Jean Pascal is about to invade America!”
Chad Dawson expressed his desire for a rematch and argued that he was on his way to a stoppage before the premature stoppage.
“I had him hurt before he head butted me. He was holding and hitting all night,” Dawson said. “I have a rematch clause so we’ll definitely do it again….I was fighting my fight. We both fought a good technical fight.”
Dawson did confirm there is a rematch clause. However, Pascal can elect to take a fight beforehand, which could possibly be an all-Montreal showdown with Lucian Bute, last week’s winner Tavoris Cloud, or Bernard Hopkins.
************************************************************
I don’t think anyone, even those picking Pascal, saw this coming. Pascal clearly wanted this fight more and it should in his performance tonight.
Pascal was tired at many points during the fight as the HBO team pointed out. But unlike Dawson, Pascal pushed through his limitations. The Canadian champ won this contest by out-willing an opponent that boasted advantages in speed and punching technique.
I never like to write fighters off after a loss, especially their first. But sometimes the fighters themselves make it easy for fans to paint them as overhyped, network-created stars. In one of the his biggest fights Bad Chad Dawson turned passive and fell completely flat. He showed no fire or urgency. When he had to dig deep and earn respect from Pascal, he complained to the referee rather than defend himself. When he could have delivered the final punches to score a knockdown, he chose to stare and back off several times.
Last year when I interviewed Bernard Hopkins about Dawson, I asked the Executioner point-blank if Bad Chad was overrated. He told me that Dawson was a stock HBO’s brought into that hasn’t delivered, and added that I basically answered the question for him by even asking it.
Those words are echoing in my head now. They make me wonder if Chad Dawson has it in him to come back prove he is the pound for pound talent many anointed him as going into tonight. With the hype now stripped away, the next year and a half will truly show what Chad Dawson the fighter is truly made of. Does defeat strengthen his resolve or does it irreparably break him? Does he learn more or regress? We shall see.
In the meantime, let’s applaud Jean Pascal. He took some hard shots and refused to fold. He outwitted the supposed ring-general of this fight And considering Pascal’s post-fight exuberance and charisma, he’s a talent that HBO should consider getting behind. Pascal-Bute? Pascal-Cloud? ascal-Froch II? I’m there.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 