The house was packed Saturday night in Montreal but did the fight between Jean Pascal and Lucian Bute live up to the hype? Not quite but when there was action it was entertaining. Pascal went into the fight clearly the bigger man and Bute went in with a big question mark on whether he would continue or not.
In the first round Pascal gave Bute a gut check within the first minute. Both fighters felt each other out but by the end of the round Pascal closed the distance.
The second round started with Bute landing a straight left that was eye catching. His movement seemed to frustrate Pascal but Pascal began to throw punches in bunches and land power shots. Pascal took the round within the last minute as he would continue to do throughout the fight.
Bute seemed to be shaken up from a counter right in the eighth round then ended up going down from a looping punch that caught him behind the head and the fighters legs tangling up.
Bute seemed to be woken up by a clash of heads in the tenth round which opened a cut between his eyes who began working his way back into the fight but Pascal landed the harder punches.
The last round seemed to go Bute’s way was Pascal was able to turn it around and go to work and close out the round.
Final scores all came in favor of Pascal. The scorecards read: 116-112, 117-110 and 117-111.
On the televised undercard Mike Perez took on Carlos Takam in what started out as a stereotypical slow fight but ended with the right amount of action.
The first round was a slow feeling out round as was the second but in the third round Takam began to pick up the pace. Perez was able to connect with some good shots but the highlight of the round came in a form of a head-butt landed on Perez which opened a nasty cut on the right eyebrow.
The pace began to pick up in the sixth round as both fighters began exchanging on the inside. The round ended with Perez getting shaken up by Takam’s punches. Takam started landing well in the seventh round but Perez began to come back at the end of the round.
Takam took the final round. Early on he knocked Perez back into the ropes. Perez tried fighting back but his punches had no snap on them.
The scorecards read: 96-94 and 95-95 twice. The fight was declared a draw.
Perez did not seem like the same fighter that we last saw and thoughts of “Mago” appeared to still be in his head. Takam took advantage of Perez’ state of mind and was able to get the draw but not the victory.
