Hopkins lands a clean right hand and Pascal's gloves touch the canvas - that's a clean knockdown. Tell em why you mad, son. I'm not saying that Pascal was badly hurt at that moment but Hopkins did hurt him several times. And Hopkins' last stoppage was against former lightweight ODLH in 2004. Hopkins is not in the same league as Kovalev in terms of punching power, neither is Dawson.
Did you count how many of Froch's power shots he took flush to the head? Would you argue Froch is less of a puncher than Hopkins?
For me, it's a combination of these two posts. Yes he can, even though Pascal's chin is rock solid. Late in the fight, the number of Kovalev bombs Pascal will have taken will prove to be too much and he'll inevitably go down. I think HBO is going to give a bit of a break to the winner of Pascal-Bute, but will tell the loser "fight Kovalev in Apr/May or don't fight on our network at all this year".
As we've discussed, I hope it happens that way, and then we get Kovalev-Stevenson late summer. Anything else would be a tremendous disappointment. I'd agree that Pascal's chin is proven tough. But I think he'd be under constant assault 1 way or the other, and would eventually give. I certainly don't see it being anything like the Sillakh fight. Maybe more along the lines of Cleverly, where he had to give ground, eat shots, try and fight back, but ultimately prove to be outgunned. He'd last a bit longer than Cleverly I'd think.
i been calling this fight out for a while now...this would be the best test for kovalev....i think it goes 12 rounds...lets see if sergey can go 12
a break? are you serious? bute is so active he is not even ranked any more, and pascal has only fought one fight more than bute in recent times...i think the last thing they need is a break:deal
I should imagine so. Pascal has a very good chin no doubt but he has been hurt before and Kovalev's a vicious puncher and a better one than Pascal has ever fought. Unless someone is going to try and argue that Froch, Dawson, Hopkins, and Diaconu are better punchers than Kovalev? Lionell Thompson said ''no one hits like Kovalev'' and Thompson has sparred against a who's who of world class talent including the likes of Froch, Bute, Dawson, Hopkins, Troy Ross, David Lemieux. I think he might also have sparred Adonis Stevenson too, although I'm not sure about that. And didn't Darnell Boone say in a recent interview that he thought Kovalev hit harder than Stevenson? Either way, regardless if he does or doesn't hit harder than Stevenson (which is a different topic and one I don't care to get into), Kovalev clearly hits extremely hard and anybody who tries to claim the contrary cannot and should not be taken seriously. Pascal's chin impressed me a lot in the Froch fight, so did Froch's in that fight for that matter, but IIRC he was hurt pretty good on a couple of occasions in his fight prior to that against Omar Pitmann. Pascal actually once said that Froch ''hits crazy hard'' and I remember thinking to myself early in that fight that he was feeling the weight of Froch's punches at times. Don't get me wrong he took them very well, it's just I recall seeing a little look of surprise at how hard he'd been hit flash across his eyes once or twice in the early going. Great fight though. I'm not doubting the sturdiness of Pascal's chin here, I think he has a very good one indeed. But Kovalev's power is clearly nasty and he can hit with both hands. He also mixes his shots up really well and is good a creating openings to land those bombs. You can hear the power in his shots on TV and I've heard at least two or three people who were ringside for his fights say the same too.
Pascal has good speed, but crappy stamina. He'll get the edge in the fist 3 rounds, but Kovalev will punish him for the next couple rounds before knocking him out.
Of course. Kovalev hits hard, much harder than Froch, who had Pascal in trouble in the opening round.
Pascal is legit but Dawson had him hurt so kovalev can hurt him no question. Can Pascal hurt Kovalev? I would say yes too so it'd be a good fight to make if Pascal flattens Bute as I expect.
Same here... twice as long, me thinks. I'd ballpark the T/KO for round 9 or 10. Wasn't he dropped by Boone?