Written by Jean Pascal continues to defy Father Time.
Pascal scored a knockout win over Terry Osias late Saturday night at Le Colisee in his hometown of Laval, Canada. Pascal, who improved to 37-7-1, 21 knockouts, won a regional title belt at cruiserweight.
The 41-year-old looked to land one big right hand onto Osias after throwing jabs as a rangefinder during the opening round. As Pascal attempted to close the distance between the two, Osias utilized lateral movement around the small ring, himself also working behind a series of jabs.
Towards the end of round two, Osias landed a straight jab, followed by a right cross to the head of Pascal, who did not look visibly hurt from the impact of the punch. Osias fought in spurts during the first half of the fight, throwing and landing straight left-right combinations to the head of Pascal. Undaunted, Pascal made Osias pay for posing in front of him, throwing a two-punch combination that forced Osias to clench.
During the middle rounds, Osias outboxed Pascal. At times, Pascal completely missed with right hands or combinations, allowing Osias to capitalize and counter with a straight right or counter left hand to the head.
By round seven, Osias’ punch output dropped significantly. He fought with his mouth open as Pascal continued to throw repeated jabs, but he began varying his offenses, landing straight lead right hands to the head of Osias.
Pascal thought he scored a knockdown at the end of round eight. After the 10-second warning, a right hand by Pascal landed on Osias’ jaw. Pascal threw and landed two more punches that dropped Osias to the canvas. Referee Martin Forest ruled Osias slipped to the canvas, to the bewilderment of Pascal, who hurt Osias late in round nine with a barrage of punches.
Moments into round 10, Pascal unleashed a vicious right cross that dropped Osias onto the bottom two ring ropes, and eventually to the canvas. Forest began counting, but waved the fight off at 56 seconds.
Entering round 10, one judge had Osias up 87-84, while the other two judges had Pascal up 86-85 and an astonishing 89-82.
Pascal had not fought since a decision loss to Germany’s Michael Eifert in an IBF world light heavyweight title elimination bout on March 16 of last year. Prior to the loss to Eifert, Pascal notched wins over Fanlong Meng, Badou Jack, and Marcus Browne, all three taking place after losing to WBA world light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol in November 2018.
In June 2009, Pascal defeated Adrian Diaconu to win the WBC world light heavyweight title. Pascal would make four successful title defenses before losing the world title belt to Bernard Hopkins in May 2011.
Osias, who resides in Longueuil, Canada, falls to 13-1, 6 KOs. In his previous fight on March 23, the 37-year-old defeated Marcos Karalitzky by decision over six one-sided rounds.
Also taking place on the card promoted by Yan Pellerin, super middleweight prospect Derek Pomerleau of Montreal improved to 10-0, 8 KOs, knocking out former world title challenger Marcelo Coceres of Argentina at 31 seconds of round five.
Coceres, who was a late replacement, falls to 32-8-1, 18 KOs and has now lost six of his last eight fights.
In cruiserweight action, Dany Mallette stopped Peter Gavrilovic (5-1, 1 KO) of Sherbrooke, Canada in the opening round. Mallette, who resides in Quebec City, improves to 2-0, 2 KOs.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at santio89@yahoo.com
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