Pascal Vs Kovalev March 14 Montreal.

So Pascal Vs Kovalev is signed, I'm sure its well know at this point but as I didn't see another thread, I thought it might be worth posting. I'm not really sure what to expect out of this fight, the obvious result would be another KO win for Kovalev, but Pascal has a pretty soild chin, I'm sure someone will correct me on him hitting the canvas, but in my vino fueled mind, I just cant recollect.

Kovalev has been must see TV for a while now, so I'd expect the 2nd biggest fight he can make in the Canada to continue to be edge of the seat viewing, (I also see Pascal as presenting a bigger test for him than Steveson, Kovalev would crack the pimp's chin at somepoint, but thats by the by).

Its slow going on the boards this festive season, Any takers for this fight, and how do you see it going?

I honestly don't think any chin can take a full on assault from Kov. If Pascal stands toe to toe at any stage he's getting KTFO.

Pascal does have a solid chin but I can only see one winner here.

Why did Pascal go up in weight? He gave Froch a great fight and I think if he could make weight there's some good fights for him at super mid. At light heavy he's now in a bit of a situation as it seems it's a Kov, Stephenson and a who cares about the rest division.

Strongy, the smart money is on kovalev KO win. I don't even think pascal has the tools to outbox kovalev. 

Duran, I think pascal just got the opertunity to win a LHW belt against diacaoui (terrible spelling attempt), in which he was the underdog, won it and never looked back to super middle, him fighting bute was much discussed and would have been massive, but I thought (I could be very wrong) that pascal wasn't willing to drop in weight. He's always came in ripped, so I figured he must have out grown super Middle.

I don't rate Pascal very highly, he gasses badly in the later rounds. Kovalev to win by UD or late stoppage in a one sided affair.

Pascal is gonna get KTFO

Pascal will likely be KO'd. That said, if he wants to win, he needs to hit Kovalev with the kitchen sink early. He cannot win if this goes more than 5 as he gasses. He is an 'ambush' style fighter, so he should look to hover on outside and flatten Kov with a big left or right coming in. We saw him hit Dawson with those and the one ? remaining with Kovalev is how he takes a decent punch. Kov also moves back in straight lines. Nobody can make him move back very often, but he does.

Interesting how most are picking pascal to get knocked out. Think this is a good fight myself... kovalev favourite obviously, but don't see why pascal can't make him work for it. We're still to see what someone strong enough to stand up to Krusher and actually fight back could do. Decent test for kovalev in my eyes.

I can't see Pascal winning this one but he should be competitive. Can see it being close early on until Pascals work rate drops and Kovalevs power starts to tell but I'll be seriously impressed if he stops Pascal as he is one tough guy, Froch hit him with just about everything and I don't recall him really being wobbled.

Yup - Pascal's far tougher than people give him credit for. He's far from the finished article (Hopkins showed us that) but he's beaten up pretty much every one else he's faced. Let's not forget he took Dawson's "0" when many were touting Chad as the next best thing. He is tough (has he ever been down?) - as stated above Froch couldn't dent him and I consider it unlikely that Kovalev will just come in and destroy him.

I think that this fight will be a win for Krusher but it will be much closer than people are thinking. Kovalev by close UD or possibly a SD in my eyes.

While Adonis Stevenson has spent a long time seemingly attempting to wrangle the best "risk/reward" deal from his (former, imo) position as "the man" at LHW, I love how Kovalev has just went about the business of fighting, and impressively beating, all the other best guys in the division. Here he is getting another good money fight with a guy Stevenson was previously negotiating with. That's the way a champion should behave: knock off the contenders one-by-one, not sit on the sidelines hoping for the perfect deal.

Pascal is strong, quick, and tough. But, his gas tank is poor and he only really fights one way: lunging in with one, or occasionally two, punches with speed from just outside punching range. Kovalev is slower, no doubt, but has much better punch variety and is far more compact/technically sound in how he throws punches. I see Kovalev tagging him early and often. But, Pascal is tough, so I expect him to be ground down towards the late rounds when his explosiveness is fading.

Another good scalp for Kovalev if he wins. Stevenson better get himself a viable opponent sometime soon. Kovalev is making him look like a forgotten man.

Boxtthis wrote:While Adonis Stevenson has spent a long time seemingly attempting to wrangle the best "risk/reward" deal from his (former, imo) position as "the man" at LHW, I love how Kovalev has just went about the business of fighting, and impressively beating, all the other best guys in the division. Here he is getting another good money fight with a guy Stevenson was previously negotiating with. That's the way a champion should behave: knock off the contenders one-by-one, not sit on the sidelines hoping for the perfect deal.

Soviet vs N American approach, basically.

Like GGG, "Look at me, I have three belts, I want fight everybody".

Think this is a cracking fight, and will cement Kov as the Divion #1 if he wins, which I think he will. Think it'll go close to the distance, don't see Pascal getting blasted out. Kov LKO.

Kovalev smacks a millennium of Sundays of Pascal. There is absolutely no way on this earth that he loses. None I tell thee. Can't get any odds on method of victory but Kov is 1/5, so suspect he'll be around 2/5 for a KO win which I shall most certainly be pumping on.

Pascal has decent enough whiskers - his main problem is his punch output drops as the fight wears on and he tends to tire quite badly. He is a heavy hitter and can be a dynamic combination puncher - a guy that looks to move and then explode. He had Hopkins down a couple of times but is attempting to box more under Roy Jones.

Kovalev, though, is likely to outwork him before hurting him, dropping him a bunch of times and then running over him.

Good fight, though, so will be tuning in.

You have to love the likes of Golovkin, Lomachenko, Beterbiev and Kovalev. They get in there, no messing about and do the business. No posturing, no hiding, no excuses. Real fighters.

Agree Haz, think it'll be a decent fight for the first 2/3 rounds before Kov takes over completely.. Just can't see Pascal staying with him. Really looking forwards to this fight, just hoping Pascal drops the technical boxer thing and goes back to his roots when he went to war with Froch. The only way I can see Pascal winning is by knockout which means he's really gonna have to go for it - easier said than done when the other guy is technically better and punches harder than you though.

One thing we don't know about Kov is his whiskers....?

Coxy001 wrote:Agree Haz, think it'll be a decent fight for the first 2/3 rounds before Kov takes over completely.. Just can't see Pascal staying with him. Really looking forwards to this fight, just hoping Pascal drops the technical boxer thing and goes back to his roots when he went to war with Froch. The only way I can see Pascal winning is by knockout which means he's really gonna have to go for it - easier said than done when the other guy is technically better and punches harder than you though.

One thing we don't know about Kov is his whiskers....?

I think he was dropped by Darnell Boone wasn't he? And there have been rumours for years that Golovkin ragged him all over in sparring - dropping him with body shots (not sure how accurate they were).

hazharrison wrote:

Coxy001 wrote:Agree Haz, think it'll be a decent fight for the first 2/3 rounds before Kov takes over completely.. Just can't see Pascal staying with him. Really looking forwards to this fight, just hoping Pascal drops the technical boxer thing and goes back to his roots when he went to war with Froch. The only way I can see Pascal winning is by knockout which means he's really gonna have to go for it - easier said than done when the other guy is technically better and punches harder than you though.

One thing we don't know about Kov is his whiskers....?

I think he was dropped by Darnell Boone wasn't he? And there have been rumours for years that Golovkin ragged him all over in sparring - dropping him with body shots (not sure how accurate they were).

The guy that stopped Stevenson?? Interesting resume!

In fairness, Pascal is bringing something a bit different to the table compared to the guys Kovalev has been running over which means it's one worth watching. He's not rigid and upright on the back foot like Hopkins or Agnew and he's not someone who always stays in the pocket just trying to outwork you like Cleverly. He's also a decent, if unspectacular puncher and Kovalev hasn't really been in with any notable bangers as of yet.

I still can't see how Pascal wins but it could at least be competitive for a while and a decent spectacle.

Pascal can move well and can be explosive, but he's just too easy to hit for me and loads up too much. His Roy Jones impression doesn't work as he just hasn't got the same reflexes and coordination to get away with it and he almost always looks the more ragged man after seven or eight rounds. Kovalev has shown against Agnew and Hopkins that he can be patient and take a guy apart slowly and methodically if he needs to. There's a chance here that he could lose twice as many rounds in this fight as he has in the past three years....But he has only lost about one round in that time, mind you.

Pascal might be caught between two stools here. If he reverts to type and has a ruck with Kovalev he could potentially have success (as I said, Kovalev hasn't been in with any real bangers and he openly admitted that Golovkin dropped him in sparring with a body shot, Haz) but runs the risk of being on the end of a crunching knockout as Kovalev's power is tried and tested - and if he boxes he might go the distance but could end up losing almost every round as he just winds up in survival mode as Kovalev patiently stalks him.

I think Kovalev loses a couple of early rounds but stops Pascal late on. Will be watching with interest.

hazharrison wrote:

You have to love the likes of Golovkin, Lomachenko, Beterbiev and Kovalev. They get in there, no messing about and do the business. No posturing, no hiding, no excuses. Real fighters.

Agree. With my old favourite, Mikey Garcia, seemingly floundering it's definitely a case of looking East for the most exciting and respect-due fighters coming through at the moment.

Usyk has been a little disappointing to date though, expected bigger/better things for him by now.

TopHat24/7 wrote:

hazharrison wrote:

Coxy001 wrote:Agree Haz, think it'll be a decent fight for the first 2/3 rounds before Kov takes over completely.. Just can't see Pascal staying with him. Really looking forwards to this fight, just hoping Pascal drops the technical boxer thing and goes back to his roots when he went to war with Froch. The only way I can see Pascal winning is by knockout which means he's really gonna have to go for it - easier said than done when the other guy is technically better and punches harder than you though.

One thing we don't know about Kov is his whiskers....?

I think he was dropped by Darnell Boone wasn't he? And there have been rumours for years that Golovkin ragged him all over in sparring - dropping him with body shots (not sure how accurate they were).

The guy that stopped Stevenson?? Interesting resume!

Yeah I had heard of his name so did a quick bit of research and apparently he's also dropped Andre Ward.

Any idea who's picking this up here btw? And please don't say BoxNation, I'm fast running out of go-to "completely legit" means of watching fights on there without lining Fish-eyes pockets.

So, he's dropped or stopped the 3 top guys across 168/175?? Bloody hell.

Surprised you haven't seen the Ward knockdown, Coxy. Was all over the place in the run up to Froch-Ward, usually being used as proof that Carl was going to shatter Andre's glass chin!

It was a right uppercut in close which put Ward over, and he was legitimately hurt and in trouble. It came relatively close to the end of the fourth round, if I remember rightly, and Ward spent most of the fifth just making sure he could clear his head. He managed that and took a six-round decision without getting good reviews.

Having decked and almost upset Ward, beaten Stevenson and dropped a split decision to Kovalev, safe to say Boone is a better fighter than his record indicates.

Somehow completely missed that Chris, even more bizarre as am a fan of Froch. To be honest I can't remember much about the build up at all, might've been banned from here (again) at the time so maybe wasn't involved in the build up on forums etc.

Problem I have with Pascal is that he can be out-fought both technically and in work rate. I just can't see even if he "gives it a go" that he finds enough momentum to hurt Kov without his own face getting rearranged in the process.

Thing is Kov has Cleverley which is hardly a yardstick as he's not even euro-level and then BHop - smashed the latter to pieces but did father time finally catch up with him or is a completely legit victory? Either way I think that however he deals with Pascal will reveal whether he's just another hype job like Jeff Lacy.

Boxnation will most likely have it they had most of Kovalev's fights

Ward was in big trouble with that shot, it made his legs turn the jelly

To be fair, Ward was still just a baby at the time, about a year after his Olympic win. In that fight you can see he hadn't really got rid of that amateur style yet. He was buzzing all over the ring like a mosquito, not giving himself a chance to sit down on his shots and fighting as if he just wanted to accumulate points for pitter-patter shots. Getting chinned and shaken up like that won't have done him any harm at all, and as I said above Boone has subsequently shown that he's a dangerous fight for any up and coming guy. I think he's shown since then that we shouldn't take anything out of that Boone fight, really.

A similar thing happened to Whitaker early in his pro career (about twelve fights in) when he got put over by Uncle Roger. Now obviously Mayweather was a hard fight for someone as young and inexperienced as a pro as Whitaker was (Roger still had another world title ahead of him) so there's no real shame in him getting put over by him, especially as Whitaker still comfortably won the fight and showed he could be the aggressor, too. But it started a whispering campaign that, although he was hard to hit cleanly, he was liable to go if you could test his soft chin and that he lacked that strength to survive against the real bull-like guys. Turns out that couldn't be further from the truth and it was really just something that served to toughen him up and make him a better fighter in the long run.

I suspect it's a similar thing with Ward. There's no such thing as a totally unbeatable fighter in my opinion, but when it comes to someone beating Ward (which can and very probably will happen at some stage, even if it takes a few years) I don't tend to give the Boone fight much thought in terms of thinking how it might happen.

Boone is one of those guys. Mediocre record, but fought the top guys and caused plenty of problems. Had he been better managed, and not a regular shirt notice opponent he'd gave a better record.

As Chris says, Ward was young and inexperienced but he was in serious troubke. There's every chance he doesn't survive the round if the shot landed earlier. It was a close fight regardless. Does the groves knockdown make froch chinny? All it says is if you catch ward flush you have a chance, he's not chuvalo or McCall, but very few fighters are. I've never bought into ward being unbeatable myself as others seem to think, excellent fighter though he is.

I don't hold much sway by sparring stories generally, because you don't know the background to them, but kovalev is on record as saying ggg dropped him with a body shot. Hardly going to lie about that is he.

TopHat24/7 wrote:

hazharrison wrote:

You have to love the likes of Golovkin, Lomachenko, Beterbiev and Kovalev. They get in there, no messing about and do the business. No posturing, no hiding, no excuses. Real fighters.

Agree. With my old favourite, Mikey Garcia, seemingly floundering it's definitely a case of looking East for the most exciting and respect-due fighters coming through at the moment.

Usyk has been a little disappointing to date though, expected bigger/better things for him by now.

Big shame to see Garcia's career floundering. They were lining him up for a Pacquiao (with a little help from Ariza before they dumped him when he got Rios busted for PEDS) and then it all went pear-shaped.

milkyboy wrote:Boone is one of those guys. Mediocre record, but fought the top guys and caused plenty of problems. Had he been better managed, and not a regular shirt notice opponent he'd gave a better record.

As Chris says, Ward was young and inexperienced but he was in serious troubke. There's every chance he doesn't survive the round if the shot landed earlier. It was a close fight regardless. Does the groves knockdown make froch chinny? All it says is if you catch ward flush you have a chance, he's not chuvalo or McCall, but very few fighters are. I've never bought into ward being unbeatable myself as others seem to think, excellent fighter though he is.

I don't hold much sway by sparring stories generally, because you don't know the background to them, but kovalev is on record as saying ggg dropped him with a body shot. Hardly going to lie about that is he.

Yeah, I meant the extent of the rumours (some said he was petrified of GGG - which seems crazy when you see him tearing up the light heavyweights).

I find kovalev quite refreshing haz. He was asked in an interview and was matter of fact about it. 'Golovkin's good fighter, hit me with body shot' in your best Russian accent type thing. He's also described him as hitting like a sledgehammer. I think it's ggg's trainer that's said kovalev was scared of golovkin. But then he's peddling the story that his man eats sparring partners. Only kovalev knows the answer.

Truth is none of these guys have been in enough wars (because they keep sparking people) to assess their durability with any real confidence. It's why I think pascal is a decent test for kovalev.

Replay of the kd at the start of this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm9iybFs4mk

Quite a shot!!

hazharrison wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:

hazharrison wrote:

You have to love the likes of Golovkin, Lomachenko, Beterbiev and Kovalev. They get in there, no messing about and do the business. No posturing, no hiding, no excuses. Real fighters.

Agree. With my old favourite, Mikey Garcia, seemingly floundering it's definitely a case of looking East for the most exciting and respect-due fighters coming through at the moment.

Usyk has been a little disappointing to date though, expected bigger/better things for him by now.

Big shame to see Garcia's career floundering. They were lining him up for a Pacquiao (with a little help from Ariza before they dumped him when he got Rios busted for PEDS) and then it all went pear-shaped.

Yeh, 12 months ago he was my favourite fighter coming through and I was pushing for him to be edging into Top10 p4p whenever it came up but he's done nothing in 12 months. Real shame as think he is/was a genuine talent.

He's a decent all-rounder toppy, but you can turn his record around and say, he had a strategy for khan that paid off... And he was tough enough and just about skilled enough to outbox matthysse. Ie he can fight to a plan and can box a bit and bang a bit. It worked in those two fights, but does a good boxer with a chin beat him? Probably I'd say. 

I think those two results raised his profile above his ability level. Just my take... there was an argument after the Herrera fight that the matthysse fight had taken something from him. Maybe, but he wasn't convincing against Judah or holt. I like him, but I just don't think he's that good.

milkyboy wrote:I find kovalev quite refreshing haz. He was asked in an interview and was matter of fact about it. 'Golovkin's good fighter, hit me with body shot' in your best Russian accent type thing. He's also described him as hitting like a sledgehammer. I think it's ggg's trainer that's said kovalev was scared of golovkin. But then he's peddling the story that his man eats sparring partners. Only kovalev knows the answer.

Truth is none of these guys have been in enough wars (because they keep sparking people) to assess their durability with any real confidence. It's why I think pascal is a decent test for kovalev.

I like them all - no faffing about with that lot. They just get in and fight (and confine the Ali impersonations to the bin).

It's a fight Pascal could win. Alright, the odds are against him but he does have a shot. I'm a fan of both so must-watch-TV for me.

Think they might have been talking about Mikey Garcia, milky - odd as it sounds they were talking about fast-tracking him up to Welter or a catchweight just beneath that for Manny a year or so back. For what it's worth, I agree almost word for word with your assesment of Danny Garcia, though!

With regards to Mikey, I thought he looked really good at 126 and obviously is a good all-rounder. But I rowed back on him a bit more than others simply because he was absolutely ginormous at Featherweight and his size just seemed to effectively make it impossible for other guys to do something with him and meant he had a bit of a free licence to do as he pleased in his fights, similar to Broner at Super-Feather and Lightweight. It took him puking in to a bag after getting off the scales to convince him to go up to Super-Feather himself, and he had a stinker against Burgos which just seems to have halted all the momentum he had behind him.

There's been talk of matching him and Crawford - now that's a fight. Risky for both, though, but Top Rank also have Algieri knocking around at 140, so there are some potentially decent fights out there for him to get back on track.

milkyboy wrote:He's a decent all-rounder toppy, but you can turn his record around and say, he had a strategy for khan that paid off... And he was tough enough and just about skilled enough to outbox matthysse. Ie he can fight to a plan and can box a bit and bang a bit. It worked in those two fights, but does a good boxer with a chin beat him? Probably I'd say. 

I was talking about MIKEY Garcia!! Can't stand Danny lol

88Chris05 wrote:
There's been talk of matching him and Crawford - now that's a fight. Risky for both, though, but Top Rank also have Algieri knocking around at 140, so there are some potentially decent fights out there for him to get back on track.

Crawford would be cracking, would love to see that!!

Wonder if Walters would move up from featherweight....he certainly looks big at the weight.

I must be missing something with Kovalev..............To me he's a decent fighterwith a punch...Nothing more......Pick every single fighter on Chris thread to beat him comfortably..

Yep he beat Pops-Hops.......But I don't think there are many decent fighters that wouldn't beat a 50 year old....and if you can't shame on you !!

Much prefer Stevenson who I think is more skilled and more exciting...

Pascal is no great shakes...................Kovo ko 9..

TopHat24/7 wrote:

milkyboy wrote:He's a decent all-rounder toppy, but you can turn his record around and say, he had a strategy for khan that paid off... And he was tough enough and just about skilled enough to outbox matthysse. Ie he can fight to a plan and can box a bit and bang a bit. It worked in those two fights, but does a good boxer with a chin beat him? Probably I'd say. 

I was talking about MIKEY Garcia!! Can't stand Danny lol

hmmn. note to self, must learn to read.

whichever, I'm sure everyone agrees my assessment of danny garcia, who's career stalled also in 2014, is spot on:whistle:

Garcia's career has stalled because he's an ugly ducking like Bradley........

No real fan appeal with Danny............So unless he's fighting a name no one gives a toss...

Haha I do, actually!

Maybe some day GGG will leave the comfortable confines of middleweight and prove his greatness by taking on a live opponent. He's no young buck though.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Garcia's career has stalled because he's an ugly ducking like Bradley........

No real fan appeal with Danny............So unless he's fighting a name no one gives a toss...

Garcia is a decent enough draw isn't he? I thought his career stalled because he attempted to leave Arum (and got involved in a contractual wrangle)?

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:I must be missing something with Kovalev..............To me he's a decent fighterwith a punch...Nothing more......Pick every single fighter on Chris thread to beat him comfortably..

Yep he beat Pops-Hops.......But I don't think there are many decent fighters that wouldn't beat a 50 year old....and if you can't shame on you !!

Much prefer Stevenson who I think is more skilled and more exciting...

Pascal is no great shakes...................Kovo ko 9..

Lay off the moonshine sonny.

milkyboy wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:

milkyboy wrote:He's a decent all-rounder toppy, but you can turn his record around and say, he had a strategy for khan that paid off... And he was tough enough and just about skilled enough to outbox matthysse. Ie he can fight to a plan and can box a bit and bang a bit. It worked in those two fights, but does a good boxer with a chin beat him? Probably I'd say. 

I was talking about MIKEY Garcia!! Can't stand Danny lol

hmmn. note to self, must learn to read.

whichever, I'm sure everyone agrees my assessment of danny garcia, who's career stalled also in 2014, is spot on  

Haha I do, actually!

Strongback wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:I must be missing something with Kovalev..............To me he's a decent fighterwith a punch...Nothing more......Pick every single fighter on Chris thread to beat him comfortably..

Yep he beat Pops-Hops.......But I don't think there are many decent fighters that wouldn't beat a 50 year old....and if you can't shame on you !!

Much prefer Stevenson who I think is more skilled and more exciting...

Pascal is no great shakes...................Kovo ko 9..

Lay off the moonshine sonny.

Can you imagine Kov taking 6 rounds to deal with Bellew??

He'd steam roll in 3.

TopHat24/7 wrote:

Strongback wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:I must be missing something with Kovalev..............To me he's a decent fighterwith a punch...Nothing more......Pick every single fighter on Chris thread to beat him comfortably..

Yep he beat Pops-Hops.......But I don't think there are many decent fighters that wouldn't beat a 50 year old....and if you can't shame on you !!

Much prefer Stevenson who I think is more skilled and more exciting...

Pascal is no great shakes...................Kovo ko 9..

Lay off the moonshine sonny.

Can you imagine Kov taking 6 rounds to deal with Bellew??

He'd steam roll in 3.

I'm not sure what that means.............Styles make fights......Biggs beat Tillis easier than Tyson did...

Like I said I see a stand up European with a punch.........decent fighter and that's it..

Yeh, but you've always hated on EE fighters.

He could blow Ward out the water and you'd still slate him.

What fight has SuperDuck been in that's more exciting than Kov's dismantling of Hoppo (a guy who's career has been based on making hyped fighters look bad)??

Bellew is a Euro level fighter and Adonis took an age to get to him, highlighting how limited he is, but no, it's Kov that's the one-dimensional 'stand-up' EE fighter....

stevenson just took his time dismantling a very cagey bellew, but dismantle him he did. I think stevenson kovalev is a cracking fight were it to happen for which i have kovalev a luke warm favourite but not a strong one. Stevenson we know can be hurt, so kovalev will take him out if he gets to him. He's also a bit of a one trick pony, but when he boxes he's hard to get to and he hits like a mule too. Shame he's too busy milking his crown to get it on.