Jean Pascal had made many promises of delivering a new and improved product heading into this fight, following a near 2 year hiatus from the ring. However, it was his familiar strengths that saw him through to a UD victory, in front of a hometown crowd in Montreal’s Bell Centre, against Aleksy Kuziemsky.
Pascal appeared rusty and tentative in the opening rounds, as Kuziemsky took the ascendancy early in the fight, busily roughing up Pascal early. It appeared Pascal may have been heading into some similar struggles of the past due to lack of activity.
Pascal appeared to snap out of his hibernation midway in the 3rd round, but he would subsequently go on to injure his left arm in the subsequent 4th round, catching it in-between the rope support in mid-punch, rendering it unusable for the remainder of the fight.
Against the odds, the one-armed Pascal went on to dominate the remainder of the fight. Operating out of a modified southpaw stance, Pascal used supreme footwork and explosive athleticism to consistently unleash a series of barraging right hands to knockdown a confused Kuziemsky in the 6th, 8th, and 10th Round.
Despite Pascal unused left hand by his side, Kuziemsky was unable to make any adjustments to benefit from his advantage and even seemed to find the task more difficult. Pascal’s heart and determination was once again on show and considering the circumstances, probably shone brighter than ever before in a situation of great adversity.
Next on the agenda for Pascal is the likely rematch with current WBC champion Chad Dawson. Despite coming of a one-sided TKO loss to Super Middleweight champion Andre Ward,Dawsonstill holds the Light-Heavyweight belt, claimed off Pascal’s successor Bernard Hopkins. Only time will tell the effect that Dawson’s most recent defeat will have in this perspective matchup, but after this resolute display Pascal will enter the bout with supreme confidence of handing Dawson a repeat loss.
