Whitesands Events Center, Plant City, Florida, USA. In the main event of the show, the age ex-world champion Jean Pascal (36-6-1, 20 KOs) from Canada snatched a victory from Fanlong Meng (17-1, 10 KOs) from China, inflicted his debut defeat in his career.
Age ex-champion Pascal looked heavy. More than ever, he telegraphed blows, threw them out sweepingly, and tumbled after them. Nevertheless, he took the starting round, as the opponent was clearly afraid of him and was terribly passive.
Then left-hander Meng controlled the course of the battle without any problems: he kept the opponent on the jab, disturbed him with left straight lines. In the 2nd round, one of these blows gave a good chat to the veteran, but he did not fall. Further – worse. Pascal saved himself in the clinch after almost every missed straight. So he won’t last long.
In the 3rd three-minute period, the Canadian had his first tangible success – he pushed the opponent to the canvas, and then he was offended that the referee did not record a knockdown. Pascal got excited, rushed to the attack and, perhaps, even wrote down the round in his piggy bank. The veteran slightly leveled the course of the battle, but was forced to take long pauses for recovery.
He couldn’t hit with emphasis, because he simply rushed at the opponent, but he didn’t have time to counter. Well, you know how Pascal “boxes”?
The veteran started the 7th round great. Meng sank again, fearful of his own attacking attacks. In one of the episodes, the ex-champion amused everyone with his trick – he rushed forward, throwing punches from both hands at the same time. The referee stopped the fight and asked what it was?
Meng controlled the 9th round, moved well, but missed the blow at the last second and fell. Most likely, the Canadian has already caught up with his opponent on the judges’ maps.
Pascal is very tired. His strikes have lost “explosiveness” and power. But experience helped – I waited for the last 30 seconds of the 12th round, increased the density and pace of the battle, shocked the opponent and forced him to survive until the gong. Meng foolishly gave Pascal the fight he had already won. But let’s wait for the judges’ decision.
Yes, it is: 115-112, 114-113 and 116-111 in favor of the veteran.
Pascal UD 12.
Blimey! But Maine had the 1st position in the IBF rating (but the fight was not a qualifying one), he claimed to fight with the unified champion from Russia Artur Beterbiev.
