Canada based Haitian Jean Pascal (29-2-1) emerged a clear winner of the light heavyweight battle in Quebec this morning after dominating the vast majority of twelve rounds against Romanian Lucian Bute (31-2).
Bute’s reluctance to let his hands go was the story throughout most of the fight, and he waited until the championship rounds to cause Pascal any problems.
After a cagey first, Pascal started to take control as early as the second. Bute boxed his way back into it in the third, but was ineffective with an occasional jab in the fourth and allowed Pascal to bully him with a right hand.
While Bute’s jerky movement made it difficult for Pascal to land cleanly, the latter’s workrate was higher, controlling action which ebbed rather than flowed. Bute didn’t really make a case for any of the middle rounds, and his reluctance to unload made the fight a difficult watch.
A head clash saw blood stream from Bute’s nose in the tenth and things looked bad for the former IBF super middleweight champion, but with Pascal visibly tired, Bute came back in the eleventh and went on to take the closing round convincingly. He appeared to have a spent Pascal in a fair amount of trouble, but his rally came far too late. Judges scored 116-112, 117-110 and 117-111 for Pascal.
After the fight, Pascal said: “When I go into the ring, I want to dominate. That was my game plan, to dominate all the time. Go in and out. To be vicious, active, explosive, and that’s what I did from start to finish.”
“I want to thank Roy Jones who came into my corner. He’s a down to earth guy and is one of the great pound-for-pound fighters.”
A disappointed Bute said: “I prepared and trained well, but things didn’t go as planned. My arms just weren’t moving. But the real Lucian Bute is the one you saw in the 12th round.”
Bute did indeed show spirit in the last round. Some suggest that the Romanian’s confidence hasn’t fully returned after the five round mauling at the hands of Carl Froch in May 2012, but perhaps inactivity was also a factor. This was his first fight in 14 months, whereas Pascal was out in September last year.
This fight featured the WBC’s ‘Diamond’ belt as a prize, and with Pascal now right back in the light heavyweight mix, he can look forward to meeting ‘Superman’, regular WBC champion Adonis Stevenson in another Canadian blockbuster.
