Kovalev beats Pascal after seven rounds
Sergey Kovalev dominated Jean Pascal to retain his WBA, IBF, and WBO light heavyweight titles in their highly-anticipated rematch.
Kovalev knocked out Pascal in the eighth round in a fairly dominant performance 10 months ago, but he blew the Canadian away in their rematch at the Bell Center in Montreal on Saturday.
The Russian was declared the winner via TKO when Pascal’s trainer Freddie Roach stopped the fight after the seventh round.
“This was a personal fight, because Pascal is a special person,” Kovalev told HBO after the fight.
“I mean that he is not polite with anybody. He doesn’t respect fighters. He doesn’t respect anybody.
“In Montreal, everyone said to me, ‘kick his ass’.”
In just the first round Kovalev landed a shot that should have resulted in a knockdown, but referee Michael Griffin ruled it a slip.
However, as the bout went on, there was no doubt as to who was going to be the winner, with Pascal hardly offering any resistance.
After the sixth round Pascal asked Roach for one more, but by the end of the seventh the trainer decided his Haitian Canadian boxer had had enough.
“I wanted to extend the rounds and punish him more,” Kovalev added.
“I stopped him before the eighth round. He lost the bet. $50,000. I don’t respect him at all, and I never will.”
