Kovalev Stops Pascal at the End of the 7th
Photo Credits: David Spagnolo/Main Events
Undefeated Unified WBO, WBA and IBF Light Heavyweight World Champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (29-0-1, 26 KOs) retains all three of his titles as he makes short work of former light heavyweight world champion, Jean Pascal (30-4-1, 17 KOs), again.
The crowd was deafening as Michael Buffer announced Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev and Jean Pascal and everyone at Centre Bell was on their feet. Through the first five rounds Pascal weathered the flurry of punches handed out by The Krusher. However, by the fifth round Pascal seemed to be barely able to stay on his feet. Pascal’s trainer Freddie Roach stopped the fight just prior to the start of the eighth round.
After the fight Kovalev said, “I don’t think Freddie Roach changed him at all. He was actually easier for me. I hurt his ego the most because they stopped the fight when he was sitting in the corner on the bench. I hurt my left hand a little from a very hard punch. I broke his nose, maybe that is when I hurt my hand. I don’t like him. I punish him. Merci! I love you Canada!”
Pascal added, “Regardless of what he is as a person, Sergey Kovalev is a great champion. I give him all the credit he deserves. This is the first time he showed he is a clean athlete and I was pleased to prove this by paying for his VADA drug testing. I will be back and better than ever, but as always I know my performances dictate my narrative so I will let my next fights do all my talking. I feel like I let myself, my team and my close family at Interbox down, but we will continue to work together and build our companies, our fantastic market and, God willing, my next title fight in the process. Thank you to all my fans that came out to support me. I will be back. Don’t worry guys.”
When asked about a potential fight with Andre Ward, Kovalev said, “I am very happy this fight will happen.” He also added that in the mean time there is one more fight he wished would happen when he said, “I want to unify all four titles. I want to fight Adonis Chickenson.”
The HBO World Championship Boxing telecast began with a 10-round welterweight battle for the vacant USBA Welterweight Title between Dmitry “They Mechanic” Mikhaylenko (21-0, 9 KOs) of Gelendzhik, Russia and Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield (19-3-1, 17 KOs) of San Francisco, California.
Mayfield came out of the gates swinging so hard he nearly fell over. Both fighters threw wild punches in the first two fast-paced rounds. The Mechanic dominated through nearly the entire fight. He secured the USBA Welterweight Title and two judges scored his unanimous decision victory a perfect 100-90 and the third judge gave one round to Mayfield 99-91, keeping Mikhaylenko’s undefeated record in tact.
After the fight, Mikhaylenko said, “It was a lot of hard work in the ring. Mayfield was tougher than I thought he was going to be. He hung on me too much but I was able to throw more punches. I am happy with my performance.”
Mayfield added, “He is tough, very durable. He was able to absorb my punches. He took some good shots from me, but he was able to recover very well. Really tough guy. Future champ. You need more time to prepare for a guy with Mikahaylenko’s style. I would like a rematch and have the proper time to prepare.”