With last year in the rearview mirror, it’s the first boxing event of 2016 from HBO Boxing: Sergey Kovalev vs Jean Pascal II
In his 2015 debut, Sergey Kovalev defended his WBA, WBO and IBF light heavyweight titles against Jean Pascal at the Centre Bell in Montreal. He stopped Pascal in eight rounds, knocking down the former world champion Jean Pascal for the first time in his career and then stopped him with consecutive right hooks to the head in the eighth round. Kovalev (28-0-1, 25 KOs) continued his 2015 campaign flicking away Nadjib Mohammedi at Mandalay Bay for his sixth consecutive title defense.
Pascal (30-3-1, 17 KOs), for the moment, is still a top-five name in the light heavyweight division. Despite a shaky performance against Yunieski Gonzalez, he was able to slug his way towards the rematch with Kovalev this Saturday. A top athlete in the sport, Pascal possesses strength and conditioning that allows the Haitian Canadian to box from the outside, while also throwing powerful hooks in abundance. But with the amount of punishment Pascal received last year, it will be interesting to see if the veteran’s proven durability can still withstand the firepower from his dangerous opponent in this rematch.
The Kovalev who emerged from the match-up last year is clearly the favorite once again. But, Pascal had his moments in that first fight. Who knows how much improvement we’ll see in him now that he’s hooked-up with legendary boxing trainer Freddie Roach.
The addition of Freddie Roach is the only apparent difference in this match-up compared to the one almost a year ago. Can Freddie revitalize another veteran fighter’s career the way he did for Miguel Cotto? Is another “barn burner” all but inevitable? Can Pascal pull off the upset in his hometown?
Montreal is not only Pascal’s home city, but also the city of residency for WBC champion Adonis Stevenson. He’s the Man who beat the Man, also known as “Superman.” His existence is partly what’s at stake for both fighters in this rematch.
For Pascal, a victory would continue his top ranking in the division, potentially opening the doors for many more big money fights in the near future. A third fight with Kovalev would be nothing short of a guarantee, or perhaps an unlikely showdown for Canada against Stevenson. On the flip side, he’s at a point in his career where a second loss to Kovalev will not exactly drop him out of the list of top light heavyweights, but may start his descend.
Much more is at stake for the “Krusher” Kovalev. A successful title defense on Saturday would keep the arrangement of meeting pound for pound fighter Andre Ward in the second half of 2016 intact. But most importantly, a victory would put added pressure on both management teams of Kovalev and Stevenson to make a light heavyweight unification bout.
Boxing fans have been clamoring for this fight for years, perhaps since 2013, which is way back when Stevenson and Kovalev were on the same HBO card. Is it because they’re the two best in the division? Or maybe because of the collective chuckles from the boxing fans whenever Sergey calls Adonis a piece of (expletive)? Oh let’s not forget that good ol’ Twitter beef between the two.
All of these factors are trivial at this point. What the sport of boxing needs is a unified titleholder. Stevenson and Kovalev meeting in the ring could be the next shot at this finally becoming a reality. Outside of this fight, boxing fans might never get one due to boxing politics. It’s sad and unacceptable.
Boxing is the only sport that crowns four separate world champions per weight division, making it difficult for fans to invest in fights with so many belts and champions floating around. Imagine if you had four teams that could run around claiming they won Super Bowl 50.
So what we have in the boxing political landscape are fighters that are winning belts and holding them hostage within their own promotional company and/or television contracts. Although Kovalev – Stevenson is as unrealistic as Mayweather- Pacquiao from yesteryear, the matchup may not be so far out of the question if Kovalev wins convincingly this Saturday. Kovalev is expected to fight again in the summer and with the small talk that’s going on between the two parties, there’s some hope.
Just imagine this scenario: Kovalev fights Pascal at the end of January. Then fights Stevenson in the summer, and ends his 2016 campaign fighting Andre Ward. Not only do we have an undisputed champion, we can potentially crown a new pound for pound king.
Bring it on, 2016.
- Ben Barroga / @BenjaminBarroga
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