Articles

Jean Pascal Pressing HARD To Get Adonis Stevenson Into the Ring With Him

Published

10 years ago

August 28, 2014

Ex light heavy champ Jean Pascal has been flurrying at Adonis Stevenson, the fellow Canada-based hitter, but he’d prefer to be doing it in an actual ring, rather than on social media.

The 31-year-old Pascal, who sports a 29-2-1 mark, having last fought in January, when he beat Lucian Bute (wide UD12), is now accusing Adonis of being a coddled dodger, someone who avoids XL tests, like against Sergey Kovalev, and now the Haitian born pugilist Pascal.

Team Pascal, led by Pascal Promotions’ CEO, Greg Leon, sent out the following release, to help put some more pressure on Stevenson, the former Emanuel Steward protege, a 24-1 boxer/puncher who was also born in Haiti.

THE NORTH AMERICAN PRESS HAS SPOKEN:

-When asked if a 50/50 revenue split was fair to make the Stevenson-Pascal fight happen, the press made their position crystal clear. With all of Team Stevenson’s banter surrounding a ridiculous 70/30 split, here’s a REALISTIC 70/30 split for them to digest.

Dan Rafael ESPN: Yes

Rejean Tremblay Journal De Montreal: No. 51/49 for Stevenson

Kevin Iole Yahoo Sports: Yes

Gabriel Beland La Presse: Yes

Rick Reeno Editor and Chief Boxingscene.com: Yes

Vincent Morin 98.5: Yes

Michael Woods TheSweetScience.com: Yes and Pascal might deserve more because he’s been prominent longer

Jeremy Filosa 98.5: No. 55/45 for Stevenson

Mathieu Bedard RDS: Yes

Nancy Audet TVA: No. 60/40 for Stevenson

Martin Achard 12rounds.ca: Yes

Stevenson Vs Pascal: JUST THE FACTS

Although Adonis Stevenson is the WBC light heavyweight champion, everybody knows that our position for a 50-50 revenue split is more than fair. Jean Pascal is clearly a much bigger box office star than Adonis Stevenson in the Quebec marketplace. This is not an opinion, this is a fact. And it is supported by several other indisputable facts such as;

1. Jean Pascal has taken part in 3 of the 5 highest grossing fights (including #1) in the history of Canadian boxing and Adonis Stevenson was not involved in the other two.

2. In those three fights, his two with Bernard Hopkins and his January 18 victory over Lucian Bute, Jean Pascal generated more revenue and ticket sales than Adonis Stevenson has in his combined career.

3. Yvon Michel publicly acknowledged that Jean Pascal is a more valuable commodity than Adonis Stevenson. If Jean Pascal can make $1M without a belt to fight Tavoris Cloud after the champion just knocked him out for $650,000 then Jean Pascal is worth significantly more money.

The fact of the matter is that with a victory over Jean Pascal, Adonis Stevenson would be able to sell more than 4,800 tickets in the Bell Centre, thus making himself a box-office attraction. This is the biggest money fight available to both Adonis Stevenson and Jean Pascal. There isn’t another fight out there for Adonis that gives him the chance to become a 10,000 plus ticket seller in the province of Quebec. For Adonis this is a career high payday in a fight he would be favored to win and a victory would make a box office star, something he presently is not.

If a career high payday and the opportunity to become a box office star in a fight he’d be favored to win isn’t enough for Adonis Stevenson to make a big fight, what exactly will it take? We were even willing to allow GYM back into another multi-fight deal with Jean Pascal Promotions.

The FACTS are that Adonis Stevenson, not Jean Pascal, is the one who blew the two biggest fights available to him. Now it’s up to Stevenson to grow a pair and accept a major challenge or blatantly duck his third big fight in the last year or so. A champion who ducks three big fights in favor of bouts against second tier opponents is a champion nobody respects and is easily forgotten, especially at 36 years old.

Our willingness to give the old man a rematch clause is above and beyond our requirements as WBC mandatory challenger. At 36 years old Adonis Stevenson can assure himself at least two big paydays before he turns 40. At the end of the day, boxing is a business and Team Stevenson isn’t using their best business sense. They have already lost millions of dollars with the Kovalev and Hopkins bouts and have the potential to lose millions more by choosing another second tier opponent over Jean Pascal.

Considering all of the facts, how does 50-50 not make sense to Team Stevenson? If Jean Pascal is as difficult to deal with as Yvon Michel would have the world believe, then clearly it is impossible to deal with Adonis Stevenson.

If Superman continues to run and hide behind his manager and promoter, Jean Pascal’s new nickname will be Kryptonite. And everybody knows what would happen to Superman if he were in a boxing ring with Kryptonite.

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Michael Woods

Articles

2015 Fight of the Year – Francisco Vargas vs Takashi Miura

Published

8 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

The WBC World Super Featherweight title bout between Francisco Vargas and Takashi Miura came on one of the biggest boxing stages of 2015, as the bout served as the HBO pay-per-view’s co-main event on November 21st, in support of Miguel Cotto vs Saul Alvarez.

Miura entered the fight with a (29-2-2) record and he was making the fifth defense of his world title, while Vargas entered the fight with an undefeated mark of (22-0-1) in what was his first world title fight. Both men had a reputation for all-out fighting, with Miura especially earning high praise for his title defense in Mexico where he defeated Sergio Thompson in a fiercely contested battle.

The fight started out hotly contested, and the intensity never let up. Vargas seemed to win the first two rounds, but by the fourth round, Miura seemed to pull ahead, scoring a knock-down and fighting with a lot of confidence. After brawling the first four rounds, Miura appeared to settle into a more technical approach. Rounds 5 and 6 saw the pendulum swing back towards Vargas, as he withstood Miura’s rush to open the fifth round and the sixth round saw both men exchanging hard punches.

The big swinging continued, and though Vargas likely edged Miura in rounds 5 and 6, Vargas’ face was cut in at least two spots and Miura started to assert himself again in rounds 7 and 8. Miura was beginning to grow in confidence while it appeared that Vargas was beginning to slow down, and Miura appeared to hurt Vargas at the end of the 8th round.

Vargas turned the tide again at the start of the ninth round, scoring a knock down with an uppercut and a straight right hand that took Miura’s legs and sent him to the canvas. Purely on instinct, Miura got back up and continued to fight, but Vargas was landing frequently and with force. Referee Tony Weeks stepped in to stop the fight at the halfway point of round 9 as Miura was sustaining a barrage of punches.

Miura still had a minute and a half to survive if he was going to get out of the round, and it was clear that he was not going to stop fighting.

A back and forth battle of wills between two world championship level fighters, Takashi Miura versus “El Bandido” Vargas wins the 2015 Fight of the Year.

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Articles

Jan 9 in Germany – Feigenbutz and De Carolis To Settle Score

Published

8 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

This coming Saturday, January 9th, the stage is set at the Baden Arena in Offenburg, Germany for a re-match between Vincent Feigenbutz and Giovanni De Carolis. The highly anticipated re-match is set to air on SAT.1 in Germany, and Feigenbutz will once again be defending his GBU and interim WBA World titles at Super Middleweight.

The first meeting between the two was less than three months ago, on October 17th and that meeting saw Feigenbutz controversially edge De Carolis on the judge’s cards by scores of (115-113, 114-113 and 115-113). De Carolis scored a flash knock down in the opening round, and he appeared to outbox Feigenbutz in the early going, but the 20 year old German champion came on in the later rounds.

The first bout is described as one of the most crowd-pleasing bouts of the year in Germany, and De Carolis and many observers felt that the Italian had done enough to win.

De Carolis told German language website RAN.DE that he was more prepared for the re-match, and that due to the arrogance Feigenbutz displayed in the aftermath of the first fight, he was confident that he had won over some of the audience. Though De Carolis fell short of predicting victory, he promised a re-vamped strategy tailored to what he has learned about Feigenbutz, whom he termed immature and inexperienced.

The stage is set for Feigenbutz vs De Carolis 2, this Saturday January 9th in Offenburg, Germany. If you can get to the live event do it, if not you have SAT.1 in Germany airing the fights, and The Boxing Channel right back here for full results.

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Articles

2015 Knock Out of the Year – Saul Alvarez KO’s James Kirkland

Published

8 years ago

December 29, 2015

The Sweet Science

On May 9th of 2015, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez delivered a resonant knock-out of James Kirkland on HBO that wins the 2015 KO of the Year.

The knock-out itself came in the third round, after slightly more than two minutes of action. The end came when Alvarez delivered a single, big right hand that caught Kirkland on the jaw and left him flat on his back after spinning to the canvas.Alvarez was clearly the big star heading into the fight. The fight was telecast by HBO for free just one week after the controversial and disappointing Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fight, and Alvarez was under pressure to deliver the type of finish that people were going to talk about. Kirkland was happy to oblige Alvarez, taking it right to Alvarez from the start. Kirkland’s aggression saw him appear to land blows that troubled the young Mexican in the early going. Alvarez played good defense, and he floored Kirkland in the first round, displaying his power and his technique in knocking down an aggressive opponent.

However, Kirkland kept coming at Alvarez and the fight entered the third round with both men working hard and the feeling that the fight would not go the distance. Kirkland continued to move forward, keeping “Canelo” against the ropes and scoring points with a barrage of punches while looking for an opening.

At around the two minute mark, Alvarez landed an uppercut that sent Kirkland to the canvas again. Kirkland got up, but it was clear that he did not have his legs under him. Kirkland was going to try to survive the round, but Alvarez had an opportunity to close out the fight. The question was would he take it?

Alvarez closed in on Kirkland, putting his opponent’s back to the ropes. Kirkland was hurt, but he was still dangerous, pawing with punches and loading up for one big shot.

But it was the big shot “Canelo” threw that ended the night. Kirkland never saw it coming, as he was loading up with a huge right hand of his own. The right Alvarez threw cracked Kirkland in the jaw, and his eyes went blank. His big right hand whizzed harmlessly over the head of a ducking Alvarez, providing the momentum for the spin that left Kirkland prone on the canvas.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez went on to defeat Miguel Cotto in his second fight of 2015 and he is clearly one of boxing’s biggest stars heading into 2016. On May 9th Alvarez added another reel to his highlight film when he knocked out James Kirkland with the 2015 “Knock Out of the Year”.

Photo by naoki fukuda

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