Mention the name Jean Pascal to anyone except Canadian or British hardcore boxing fans and you may get a strange look.
Fans in England know him as the Canadian slugger who fought his heart out for the vacant super middleweight alphabet title in December of 2008 at the Trent FM Arena in Nottingham.
Pascal's opponent on that night was the recently popular Carl Froch, who put on another memorable boxing exhibition last month against highly touted Jermain Taylor.
Taylor—who is a former world champion, and a top 10-ranked fighter—was winning most of the fight by tagging Froch with solid right-hand bombs dropped over the British challenger's sagging left guard.
Froch weathered the storm for most of the fight, however, and dropped Taylor with a thrilling knockout in round 12.
With the win, Froch remains undefeated, and has now solidified his position at No. 3 among the ring's top 10 super middleweights.
My Canadian countryman Pascal also more than held his own against Froch in their super middleweight battle, which most British fans voted as fight of the year.
Both men fought every second of every round, consistently tagging each other in a toe-to-toe battle waged in the center of the squared circle.
In the end however, the judges favored Froch over Pascal as the winner in what will be remembered as a close and exciting pugilistic war.
In spite of the loss, or perhaps because of it, the fight seemed to make Pascal a better fighter.
In his next bout, the 26-year-old native of Quebec fought Pablo Daniel Zamora Nievas in Canada's new fighting Mecca, Montreal, on Apr. 4, 2009. Pascal thrilled his fans by knocking Nievas out cold in the fifth round.
Now, Pascal will face another tough test when he squares off with The Ring Magazine's No. 8-ranked pugilist Adrian Diaconu Friday night.
Canadian fans like me couldn't be more excited about this matchup. Both guys can bang and it should be a great fight on the World's front, but also great in terms of Canadian bragging rights.
The fight will be at "Le Bell Centre" in front of a packed house of hometown fans, it's for Diaconu's alphabet light heavyweight title, an extremely important fight in the careers of both fighters.
A win for Pascal would catapult him amidst the light heavyweight division's most elite top 10 fighters, boxers with surnames such as Dawson, Johnson, and Hopkins.
While Diaconu brings a record of 26-0 with 15 knockouts to this matchup, Pascal remains confident, saying in essence that he is going to knock out the alphabet champion—who was born in Romania, but now makes Quebec City his home base.
"I'm the boss in this town, Montreal is my town," Pascal said. "I want to prove to the world I'm the best. I am going in there for the knockout. If it happens, perfect. If not, I'm still going to give a great fight.
"I had a great training camp in Florida. No pain, no gain and I had a lot of pain there. So I'm ready to take the crown."
However, the Romanian/Canadian Diaconu, who is making his first defense of the title, promises his fans, and Pascal, that they are in for a great battle.
"I'm going to bring everything," Diaconu said. "The intelligence, everything I've learned in 21 years of boxing, I'm going to put everything into that fight.
"If a knockout comes, it's going to come. I'm not necessarily looking for that. I look for a hard fight, aggressive. A good intelligent fight."
"So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Luke 11:9
Authors note: PASCAL AND DIACONU fought one hell of a war tonight at The Bell Centre!!-- JEAN PASCAL WON BY UD..in what could be a candidate for fight of theyear!
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