Light Heavyweight Contender Jean Pascal Following Path Set by Idol Roy Jones Jr.
One of us did it.
One of us kids, who grew up watching boxing in the 1990s, saw the preeminent fighter of the era, Roy Jones Jr., and actually pulled it off. Like all of us, this person was amazed at the skill and talent of Jones. He wanted to be just like him someday; or, if that failed, he wanted to be as close a copy as possible.
He wanted to fight with his hands down low. He wanted to hurl powerful punches from odd angles and rely on raw speed and sheer athleticism just because he could. He didn’t just want to become a world champion. He wanted to become one the way Jones did.
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We didn’t do it. We couldn’t. Being a fighter takes things most men don’t have. Being a professional one takes even more, and becoming a world champion is something only a very small segment of society ever knows.
But one of us did. He made it. Light heavyweight Jean Pascal is living the dream—his dream and some of ours, too.
“When I was a kid, I looked up to him,” Pascal told Bleacher Report. “He was my idol. He was my [role] model. To me, Roy Jones Jr. is the greatest boxer who ever lived.”
Pascal isn’t the best fighter who ever lived. He’s not the best of his era or even the best light heavyweight in the world right now. But he’s an elite fighter who’s won the Ring Magazine and WBC light heavyweight titles, holding at least a portion of them until he was defeated by Bernard Hopkins in 2011.
Since the loss, Pascal has gone undefeated, including dominating Lucian Bute over 12 rounds last year in one of the biggest fights in Canadian history. On Saturday, Pascal hopes to dethrone reigning WBA, WBO and IBF light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev in front of a packed home crowd at the Bell Centre in Montreal. The fight will be televised live by HBO.
Pascal credits Jones with inspiring him to be a boxer. In fact, Pascal said he didn’t fall in love with the sport until he saw Jones fight.
“I know that most boxers always say that as soon as they stepped into the gym they fell in love with the sport, but me? I didn’t fall in love with the sport the first time I stepped into the gym because first of all the boxing gym is hot, dirty, everybody is sweating like crazy.”
Pascal was born in Haiti, but moved with his family to the Montreal area when he was four years old. Like most kids growing up Canada, Pascal was interested in hockey. But after Pascal’s older brother found success as an amateur boxer, Pascal became interested in the sweet science.
He was 13 years old when he first walked into a boxing gym, but it didn’t seem like the place for him until he saw Jones fight for the first time.
“So the first time I fell in love with the sport was when I watched a fight with Roy Jones. I saw his style, the way he was moving, the way he was punching. It was art for me. That was art right there for me. That’s when I really fell in love with the sport.”
Pascal is one of the most popular and successful boxers from Canada alongside current WBC light heavyweight titleholder Adonis Stevenson. He said Canada embraces its fighters better than any other place in the world, and he’s privileged to be one of them.
Kovalev’s promoter, Kathy Duva, echoed similar sentiments. She said Montreal is as good a fight town as any in the world.
“People love boxing here,” Duva said. “It really shows. When you go through customs, the customs agent discusses the fight with you. You go into the grocery store…and they’re not just talking about it, it’s not that they just know there’s a fight, but they’re discussing it with you intelligently. They know everything about it.”
Pascal said the biggest fight in Canadian history would be a bout against Stevenson, who is also the Transnational Rankings and Ring Magazine champion, but that Stevenson only seemed interested in taking easy fights.
“That would be a great fight, but unfortunately for the fans when you hear Stevenson, you hear about money, money, money. You never hear him talking about pleasing the fans or making history or facing the best. He wants to be crowned the best by facing cab drivers.”
So Pascal said he’s glad he and Kovalev are similar-minded fighters who wanted to “make history” rather than “hold onto title belts” like Stevenson. He said his fight with Kovalev will be a huge event, and that neither man needed Stevenson.
“I am very excited, and I think to get a fight with Sergey Kovalev is even better because I’m going to fight for three belts at the same time. … So this is a big fight.”
Kovalev is a tough matchup for Pascal. While Jones’ style was tailor-made for someone with his ridiculous talent and ability, Pascal doesn’t quite matchup to his hero—and now mentor—well enough to take full advantage of it.
Kovalev is a boxer-puncher with serious power in both hands. He is one of the most feared fighters in the world today—one coming off the best win of his career, a 12-round domination of Hopkins.
“Kovalev doesn’t have a lot of flaws. He’s a good to great boxer. He has good technique, a great punch and he knows distance well, so I know it’s going to be a tough fight, probably one of the toughest fights in my life.”
But Pascal says he has the blueprint to defeat Kovalev.
“I know in my heart I can beat Kovalev. I’ve been working so hard over the last three months for my fight, so in my mind, in my head, I know definitely that I’m going to be the winner on March 14. And the way I’m going to do it is very simple. Just tune in to HBO on March 14! I’m going to display the blueprint.”
But no matter what happens from here on out, Pascal has done more than most of us do in our lives. He could lose by one-punch knockout to Kovalev on Saturday, and he’d still be the one guy from the '90s who didn’t just dream of following the footsteps of his idol, Jones, but actually did it.
Pascal is thankful for Jones’ impact on his life, and seems even more appreciative to work with him now. Jones is helping train Pascal for the third straight fight.
“To work with Roy Jones Jr. is incredible. It’s a dream come true. I looked up to him when I was a kid, and now he’s been living with me, training with me, giving me advice, so I am very fortunate as an athlete to be able to work with my idol.”
Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.
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