Jean Pascal Hooks Up with Freddie Roach

By Olly Campbell - 11/17/2015 - Comments

Canadian former world light heavyweight champ, Jean Pascal is to employ the services of esteemed Wild Card trainer, Freddie Roach ahead of his January rematch with dangerous Russian banger, Sergey Kovalev.

Pascal was stopped by WBO/WBA/IBF champ, Kovalev, back in March, and has since gone on to win a highly controversial decision over Cuba’s Yunieski Gonzalez back in June, a performance that made the former WBC 175 lb boss consider a change of direction from long-time cornerman, Marc Ramsay, who had guided his pro career since day one.

“Freddie Roach is one of the best trainers of all time. It is an honor to work with Freddie,” Pascal said at Monday’s announcement.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that in my corner I needed a new perspective and I thought that Freddie would be the right fit. I realized I need to improve on and correct certain mistakes I made in my [March] loss to Kovalev.

Roach, pre-occupied with preparing Miguel Cotto for Saturday’s mega-clash with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in Las Vegas, had wanted to sit on the announcement until after that fight, yet confirmed later to ESPN.com that he intends to be fully involved in preparing Pascal for his rematch date with Kovalev, and as always, Wild Card assistant trainer Marvin Somodio will also be on hand to help with pad-work etc, should Roach’s health impede upon the preparations.

“[Jean]came to my gym a couple of times and asked to work mitts with me and he liked the workout,” Roach told ESPN.com. “He was really happy with the mitt workout. Obviously, Kovalev is a tough fight. He’s a very strong guy and a friend of mine, but we’re on opposite sides for this fight and I will do whatever I can to help Jean win the fight.”

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