?KRUSHER? KOVALEV CRUSHES PASCAL TO RETAIN UNIFIED LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP WITH 7TH ROUND TKO
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 31 Jan 2016
In what was billed as a grudge match, 32 year old Russian Sergey ?Krusher? Kovalev crushed former world champion Jean Pascal in seven rounds at the Bell Center in Montreal, Canada with even the presence of Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach hardly making a difference.
Roach had predicted that Pascal could win provided he used his jab effectively and stayed away from the ropes but he could do neither as Kovalev?s jab was a key and he battered Pascal when he caught him on the ropes.
After Roach threatened to call a halt at the end of the sixth round, Pascal begged for one more chance but it made no difference as Kovalev continued to hammer the Canadian forcing Roach to call a halt at the end of round seven, enabling Kovalev to retain his WBA/IBF and WBO titles.
With the dominating performance, Kovalev kept his unbeaten record in tact and moved to 29-0-1 with 26 knockouts while Pascal who was stopped in the 8th round in the first meeting which he claimed was premature and earned a rematch, dropped to 30-4-1 with 17 knockouts.
Pascal showed the power of his jab when he dropped Pascal in round one although the referee ruled it a slip and continued to pound him with solid right hands.
Kovalev hurt Pascal at the start of the fifth round and continued ti hammer the hapless challenger forcing Roach to threaten Pascal for the first time that he would call off the fight.
Roach threatened to call it off one more time at the end of the sixth round but Pascal begged him for just one last round but Kovalev kept up the aggression and Pascal failed to make any headway as Roach decided to end the lopsided battle.
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