Pascal’s win over Bute leaves questions

01/20/201401/20/2014 Paul Strauss

Jean Pascal’s one-sided victory over Lucien Bute last Saturday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada ended with questions, not about the scoring, but about the fighters themselves. The fight didn’t have the kind of excitement fight fans had hoped for. For years, Canadians wanted to see these two warriors meet. Sadly, the matchup came too late in their careers.

Pascal won by a wide margin, but considering the way Bute fought, it wasn’t much of an accomplishment. Bute didn’t rally until late. His effort lacked the drama of Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.’s knockdown rally against Sergio Martinez. Bute’s fans certainly were hoping for similar results. His late rally gave his fans a glimmer of hope. It appeared Pascal was reeling, maybe ready to go? Then he burst out of his defensive shell, and started ripping off his own looping shots, sapping the enthusiasm out of Bute fans.

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Lucian Bute Waits Til the End: Defeat in Montreal

01/19/201401/19/2014 George Goddiess

After a long and extended delay, perhaps the highest profile fight in Canadian boxing history has finally ended. A fight that seemed inevitable has finally occurred despite the roadblocks. The fight itself turned out to be an underwhelming affair after all the accolades leading up to it. Lucian Bute held sturdy and was not stopped like many of his detractors declared would happen but he lost in a way that many could not expect. He lacked offensive urgency, his uppercut to the head and viscous liver shot never once became a factor. Bute had several sharp jabs and some occasional left hands.

Then suddenly in the final three minutes Bute assaulted Jean Pascal with everything in his arsenal. A first it was hard to tell if he was playing possum because Pascal then jumped out and sprung into attack. Then, Bute went back onto the assault once again until the end of the round. When the fight was over and the twelve rounds were completed there was no doubt about who would win and the right man was given the nod on the scorecards by margins of four points on one card and seven on the other two.

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Pascal defeats Bute; Perez -Takam fight to a draw

01/19/201401/18/2014 Rob Smith

Jean Pascal (29-2-1, 17 KO’s) beat former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-2, 24 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. The final judges scores were 116-112, 118-110, 117-111.

The fight was horrible to watch because Bute wouldn’t throw punches, and spent 3 minutes of every round just moving his head like a fighter who can no longer pull the trigger on his punches. Bute didn’t look like a physically shot fighter. He did throw some nice punches in the 12th round when he finally decided to start fighting. But Bute’s problem seemed to be more on the mental side. He looked like he was afraid to get countered by Pascal if he let his hands go, and he just wasn’t going to leave himself in a vulnerable position.

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Bute and Pascal battle it out tonight at Bell Centre in Montreal

09/15/201601/18/2014 Bill Phanco

There are a lot of questions that will be answered tonight in the Canadian battle between Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) and Jean Pascal (28-2-1, 17 KO’s) at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. The first question is whether Bute will be able to stand up to Pascal’s power. He’s not a huge puncher, but he can definitely cause his opponents problems if they don’t have a strong chin.

Bute’s knockout loss to Carl Froch has to make you question whether he has the punch resistance needed to beat another quality fighter.

For most of his career, Bute has been able to get by largely on the match-making that’s been done for him. Bute never had to fight anyone really good until late in his career when he fought Froch. We found out in that fight that Bute’s chin isn’t good enough for him to beat an A level fighter. However, Bute’s offense is good that it might enable him to get past this test tonight, because for Pascal to get to Bute, he’s going to have to take some major risks. Pascal has a good chin, but it’s hard to say what’ll happen if he gets hit hard to the body by Bute.

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Bute and Pascal on target at weigh-in

01/18/201401/17/2014 Bill Phanco

Former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) and Jean Pascal (28-2-1, 17 KO’s) both successfully weighed in on Friday for their clash tomorrow night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. Bute, who is coming of lackluster 12 round decision win over Denis Grachev over a year ago, weighed in at 173.6 lbs. For his part, the 31-year-old Pascal weighed in right at the limit at 175 lbs.

This was a fight that was really looked forward to for many years in Canada, but due to Pascal’s loss to Bernard Hopkins, and Bute’s defeat at the hands of Carl Froch, a lot of the excitement that would have been there for this fight has been lost. The fight is basically 3 years too late. Pascal has become a part-time fighter who rarely fights nowadays, and he hasn’t taken on a good opponent in 3 years since his loss to Bernard Hopkins. Bute was kind of exposed in the Froch fight in terms of his chin.

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Jones Jr. thinks Pascal can become a huge star

01/17/201401/16/2014 Kevin Chittenden

While many boxing fans see former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal as a fighter who has had his 15 minutes of fame and is on the downside of his career, Roy Jones Jr., who Pascal was compared to earlier in his career, thinks that the 31-year-old Pascal can still become a huge star if he can beat former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute this Saturday night, and then beat Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev. That’s a lot easier said than done, because Pascal looked terrible in getting beaten by Bernard Hopkins in 2011, and he’s done next to nothing since losing that fight.

“If Pascal wins this [Bute] and goes out and gets Stevenson next, it would be a big deal again in Quebec,” Jones Jr. said to Yahoo Sports. “But if he puts together some impressive fights and markets himself, it could be a big deal everywhere. And I think it’s a lot better to be a big deal everywhere.”

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Lucian Bute vs. Jean Pascal this Saturday on HBO in Montreal

01/12/2014 Kevin Chittenden

This Saturday night Jean Pascal (28-2-1, 17 KO’s) and Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) will be facing each other in an HBO televised fight from the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada. Pascal, 31, has fought only rarely since his loss to Bernard Hopkins in 2011. Pascal fought once in 2012 in beating Aleksy Kuziemski and once in 2013 in stopping 39-year-old George Blades. It’s been three years since Pascal had his last serious fight, and anything is possible when you have a fighter as rusty as Pascal is.

Pascal is getting Bute at the right time of his career with Bute having been stopped in the 5th round by Carl Froch in May of 2012, and having problems beating Denis Grachev in November of 2012. Bute didn’t look good in the Grachev fight, as he made what should have been an easy fight into a very tough one by fighting so timidly.

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Jones Jr: Pascal has a strong plan B for Bute fight

08/01/201401/01/2014 ESB

bute343 bute343 By Matt Earnst: Roy Jones Jr. is mentoring former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (28-2-1, 17 KO’s) for his upcoming bout against Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) this month on January 18th at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. Jones Jr. says that Pascal will try to box Bute initially to see how that goes.

They don’t want to go out quickly and try and overpower the soon to be 34-year-old Bute immediately in the same way that Carl Froch did in stopping him in the 5th round two years ago in May of 2012. With Pascal’s hand speed and boxing ability, he has other options available to him that the slow-fisted, slow-moving Froch didn’t have to use in his fight against Bute. So what Jones Jr. wants Pascal to do is to try and box Bute, and if that doesn’t work then he wants him to switch to plan B to look to blast him out the way that Froch did.

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Jean Pascal and Lucian Bute are ready!

11/01/2013 InterBox

InterBox and Groupe Yvon Michel (GYM) are very pleased to confirm the rescheduled date for the much anticipated Light Heavyweight bout featuring Jean Pascal (28-2-1, 17 KO) vs. Lucian Bute (31-1-0, 24 KO). This local bout with high International intrigue will take place on Saturday, January 18th 2014 at the Montreal Bell Centre. HBO World Championship Boxing will televise.

This high profile bout between two former World champions was originally scheduled to take place last May 25th, but was postponed due to an injury to Lucian Bute’s left hand.

Yvon Michel, President of GYM, is very enthusiastic that this long awaited bout is finally rescheduled: “We are preparing for an event like no other in Canadian history. This event will be the new measuring stick for us in our sport, and this statement is true as much for boxing fans as it is for the fight itself and the intensity surrounding it”.

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Bute-Pascal to fight, possibly on May 25th

02/19/201302/19/2013 ESB

bute2 bute2 By Jeff Sorby: Jean Pascal (27-2-1, 16 KO’s) and former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) have agreed for a fight that could take place in May, possibly on May 25th or at a later date. The fight will take place at 175, so Bute will have to move up in weight to make this happen.

It makes a lot of sense for Bute to be moving up, and staying up that weight because his chances of finding success in the weak light heavyweight division is a lot better than it is if he stays at 168.

Bute was stopped last May in the 5th round by Carl Froch, and the way that Bute was beaten suggests that the results would be the same if he fought Froch again. If Bute can’t hang with Froch, then it’s highly likely he won’t be able to hang with the likes of Andre Ward, Mikkel Kessler and Arthur Abraham.

The Bute-Pascal fight will be absolutely huge because both of these fighters typically sell out each time they fight in Montreal, and this is going to be much bigger given that they’re facing each other. They’re talking about possibly staging the fight at the Bell Centre, Olympic Stadium, or an outdoor football stadium in Quebec.

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