Mention Jean Pascal, and you will see “The Krusher” emerge. His eyes will narrow and the jovial demeanor he wore a second before will disappear.
Kovalev (28-0-1, 25 KOs) wants to hurt Pascal (30-3-1, 17 KOs) in their rematch on HBO this Saturday at the Bell Centre in Montreal for Kovalev’s WBA, WBO and IBF titles.
The first time they met, on March 14, the 31-year-old Kovalev stopped Pascal with a pair of heavy rights at 1:03 of the eighth round. The fight had a back-and-forth quality. Kovalev had knocked down Pascal for the first time in his career in the third round, but Pascal came charging back behind wide-winging left hooks and loaded-up rights.
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When the rematch was announced in November, Pascal, 33, broached an area that rankled Kovalev, calling the Russian a “racist” for a vulgar tweet in which he superimposed a monkey’s head on WBC light heavyweight champ Adonis Stevenson’s body. Pascal took great offense, calling Kovalev a “racist” and “ignorant.” Kovalev sent an apology tweet out and thought the matter was over. Not for Pascal.
This angered Kovalev, who usually carries a balanced bearing. Not this time.
“He talks a lot of trash, and I’m going to close his mouth,” Kovalev said in a hostile tone. “I don’t care what he says about me. You can’t listen to a trash talker. He’ll pay for this. Everyone will see that he’ll pay for this. I want to end his career. I admit, as a fighter, he’s good. As a person, he’s no good. He asked for this, and he’s going to get it.”
Pascal even went after Kovalev trainer John David Jackson, who is black.
“I have no respect for John David Jackson, a black man. John David Jackson is a black man; and after his comment, after Stevenson -- he called a black man a monkey -- John David Jackson is still coaching him,” Pascal said. “So I have no respect for John David Jackson for that. Probably, he’s another guy who’s only thinking about his pocket, too. Because maybe he’s there for fame, for money, because if I were John David Jackson, I would say, ‘Kovey, I have no choice. I cannot coach you anymore because that is making no sense.’”
Jackson laughed. The talk does not penetrate him. He has been there and done that. He has a fighter to prepare; and he does not think the addition of Freddie Roach, the hall of famer who replaced Pascal’s old trainer, Marc Ramsay, will help, either.
“That’s the way I look at it,” Jackson said. “What can Freddie do? He’ll stress to Pascal to box more, but there are natural instincts in a fighter you can’t take away. Once Pascal gets hit hard -- and Sergey will hit him hard -- he’ll revert back to what he does. Sergey’s very focused for this. He’s going to beat Pascal down systematically. If this goes into deep waters, Pascal’s going to wish it was a fast, short night. He’s going to take more punishment. The reason why Ramsay’s not with him is he knew he was going to get hurt.”
Kovalev’s aggressive style does tend to leave openings. It could mean trouble if Pascal can connect with one of his loaded-up bombs, as he tried to do in their first fight. Going punch-for-punch, however, is what got Pascal in trouble the first time they met. Roach will try to wean Pascal away from some of that bomb-first mentality.
“This time, Sergey may stop him sooner than the first time,” Jackson said. “It could be a very short night for Pascal, but it will be a lot of fun to watch. These two guys really don’t like each other. That’s kind of hard, considering Sergey doesn’t dislike anyone.”
Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.