by James Slater: Due to his upset win over the previously unbeaten Chad Dawson, WBC light-heavyweight ruler Jean Pascal of Canada is one of the hottest stars in boxing right now. Blessed with a good number of options – including a rematch clause-enforced return with “Bad” Chad, a return fight with Carl Froch, a big fight with Bernard Hopkins and even an all-Canadian battle with Lucian Bute – Pascal can expect to make some big, big money.
Due to a WBC ruling, Pascal has the right to take one fight before granting Dawson his rematch, and the WBC 175-pound king has said he’d love to get a second fight with Froch, the only man to have beaten him as a pro. Talking to Telegraph.co.uk, Pascal said he’d fight “The Cobra” for a second time, but only in Canada will the rematch take place.
Back in December of 2008, in Froch’s hometown of Nottingham, U.K, the two super-middleweights put on an absolute barnburner of a battle to decide Joe Calzaghe’s vacated WBC 168-pound title. Froch, in one of his best-ever performances, rose to the occasion and gutted out a points win. Pascal, a gracious loser at the time, clearly feels Froch was the beneficiary of home town scoring; hence his demand to hold a rematch in his homeland (Pascal was actually born in Haiti, but he has lived in Canada for years now).
Froch, of course, has his upcoming October bout with Arthur Abraham to worry about right now, and the former 168-pound boss has said he must win in Monaco or else he will think about quitting the sport. But Pascal has offered him the fight, and shortly after beating the Canadian, Froch did shake his hand and promise him a chance at revenge. But can Froch find the time, not to mention the energy, to take a fight with Pascal as he is busy with his participation in the “Super Six” tournament?
Maybe after that tournament is over with will Froch, whether he has won it or not, look at the idea of a return with Pascal. Froch is tall enough to go up to light-heavyweight, and he will surely feel he can beat Pascal for a second time. The real winners if the two did agree to rumble for second time would be the fans, though. 2008’s fight was breathtaking at times, and there is no reason to believe a second fight would be any less thrilling – such is the style and nature of the two warriors.
Froch’s Dec. 2008 win looks even better now than it did back then; what with Pascal’s big success on Saturday. And though he wasn’t given too much credit by certain people after he’d become WBC champion (Joe Calzaghe, for instance, claimed he was not impressed with Froch’s win over a “relative nobody”), Froch clearly beat a very good fighter indeed.
Can Froch do it again if he agrees to the return?