Pascal rightfully assumes the throne atop of the 175 pound division

A select few picked Jean Pascal as the winner of yesterday’s fight.

I personally had Chad Dawson out boxing him en route to a UD but it wasn’t to be as Pascal landed hard and eye catching punches and roughed up Dawson before the fight was stopped in the 11th due to a headbutt induced cut above Dawson’s eye.

There is much I can say about Dawson’s performance, how he neglected his jab, didn’t seem aggressive in hostile territory and forgot how to throw combinations in what was the biggest fight of his career but I’m not here to denigrate Dawson, rather to praise Pascal. The Canadian Haitian went into the fight knowing what he needed to do: disturb Dawson’s rhythm, not allow him to settle and begin to use the boxing skills that saw him included on so many pound for pound lists and he did just that. He stayed out of distance from Dawson’s jab and fought the fight on his terms landing hard blows when he got inside.

In Canada it was always going to be Pascal’s punches that drew the fan’s gasps and cheers but he generally landed the more eye catching punches anyway. It was thought that the big ring would favour Dawson being that he is a supreme boxer but Pascal used it masterfully moving out of range when he wanted and back in to land when he wanted too.

Pascal looked unrefined and to be honest especially after seeing his fight with Froch I thought he would be easy pickings for Dawson, the way he swings his right hand with such force that he loses balance and squares up should have made him an easy target for Dawson? No, Dawson was unable to capitalise on this. This isn’t to say Pascal was flawless, he did get into trouble as the fight wore on, an uppercut in the 11th round had him frozen as if he has stared into Medussa’s eyes and Steward felt that had Dawson put his foot on the gas he could have got rid of Pascal but at the end of the day he was good value for his lead on the judges scorecards. Had Dawson fought the whole fight like he did the 11th maybe it would have been a diff story yet it’s not in Dawson’s nature and Pascal didn’t allow him.

Congrats to Pascal, his achievement should be looked at in the same light as a man ranked highly in most pound for pound lists, Sergio Martinez’s who moved up and beat the then ‘best’ middleweight in the world Kelly Pavlik. For Dawson it’s back to the drawing board, maybe Eddie Mustafa Muhammad can teach him to be a little like himself and take a risk once in a while.

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