Jean Pascal vs. Stjepan Bozic on December 16

By Eric Baldwin: Former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (30-4-1, 17 KOs) will be looking to turn his career around on December 16 when he faces 42-year-old journeyman Stjepan Bozic (29-11, 19 KOs) at the Cabaret Amphitheatre Cogeco Trois-Rivieres, in Quebec, Canada. Pascal really needs a win right now, as he’s lost two out of his last three fights since 2015.

You can argue that Pascal has lost his last three fights, because his only win in the last two years was a very controversial one against Yunieski Gonzlez in July of 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pascal beat the Cuban Gonzalez by a 10 round unanimous decision by the scores of 96-94, 96-94 and 96-94. However, a lot of boxing fans that saw that fight had Gonzalez winning handily.

The judges had their reasons for giving Pascal the win, but a lot of fans disagreed with the judges. Gonzalez was taking the fight to Pascal for the entire 10 round fight and was hammering him with heavy head shots.

Pascal had his moments in landing some nice shots, but Gonzalez was doing most of the worst in each round. Instead of Pascal fighting Bozic, he should be fighting Gonzalez again so that he can prove that his win was a legitimate one. Gonzalez has since been beaten by Vyacheslav Shabranskyy by a 10 round majority decision last year in December.

Pascal appears to be nearing the end of his boxing career whether he wants to admit it or not. Pascal’s last non-controversial win came two years ago when he beat a very timid-looking Lucian Bute by a 12 round unanimous in 2014. Bute fought better in his fights after that against James DeGale and Badou Jack. Pascal appeared to catch Bute at the right time of his career when his confidence appeared shaky after his knockout loss to Carl Froch and his tougher than expected win over Denis Grachev.

Pascal has never fought newly crowned IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Andre Ward before. If Pascal can get a title shot against Ward in the near future, he might have a chance of beating him. Ward didn’t look so hot against Kovalev. Pascal’s hand speed and punching power might give Ward problems. If Kovalev was able to drop Ward, then Pascal might be able to do the same thing.

If all Ward is going to do is try and fight on the inside against Pascal, it’s unclear how well he’ll be able to do. Pascal is a cent inside fighter. He could give Ward huge problems with his size, power and inside fighting ability. It’s likely that Pascal will look to get a title shot against WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson, because he’s based out of Canada just like Pascal. A fight between them would be a big deal in Canada. If nothing else, Pascal could get a nice payday against the 39-year-old Stevenson. I don’t think he can beat Stevenson or even be competitive with him. It’s strictly a payday fight for Pascal in my view.

Pascal hasn’t been all that active in the last four years of his career. He’s fought six times since 2012. Pascal’s record during that time is 3-2-1. His only wins have come against George Blades, Lucian Bute and Yunieski Gonzalez. Pascak’s losses have come against Kovalev x 2.

Bozic’s career has been on the downside for the last 10 years since his loss to David Gigiya in 2006. Since that defeat, Bozic has lost to the following well-known fighters: Vitaliy Tsypko, Dimitri Sartison, Henry Weber, Arthur Abraham, James DeGale, Fedor Chudinov, and Tyron Zeuge. Bozic’s best wins have come against Nader Hamdan, Julio Cesar Vasquez and Lolenga Mock. Those were pretty respectable fighters. It kind of tells you that Bozic was a good fighter at one time in his boxing career 10 years ago. It’s too bad that he’s not at the same level now that he was back then, because he would have a real chance against Pascal on December 16, because he’s really starting to look like a shot fighter at this point.

It’s not likely that Pascal will have any problems against Bozic, but you never know. Pascal; hasn’t fought since January 2016 in losing to Kovalev by a 7th round stoppage in their rematch. Pascal shouldn’t have fought Kovalev a second time, because he did not match up with him at all. Kovalev was just too good for him. Pascal’s a good fighter, but he did not have the right kind of boxing skills for him to be competitive against Kovalev. Perhaps Pascal will do better against someone like Ward if he can get a fight against him.

Pascal’s long stretches of inactivity during the last four years of his career have been real negative aspects. It’s impossible for a fighter like Pascal to stay sharp with him missing so much time. It’s bad news for an aging fighter like Pascal to throw years away of his career. Pascal’s coming off of an 11-month layoff since his last fight. In 2014, Pascal was out of the ring for 11 months from January 2014 to December 2014. In 2013, Pascal was out of the ring for 10 months. Pascal fought frequently until 2012. After that, he’s fought infrequently, and that’s sad, because Pascal’s boxing skills and stamina appear to have deteriorated with his time out of the ring. I’m not sure if Pascal can get what he’s lost back. I doubt it. If Pascal’s recent routine plays out, we might not see him back inside the ring until late 2017 after his fight against Bozic.