Montreal drew the first world championship boxing card of 2016. The HBO Boxing main event featured a rematch in the light heavyweight division between Sergey “The Krusher” Kovalev and Jean Pascal. Kovalev looked to reassert his dominance of the division, while Pascal sought redemption of his 8th round TKO loss to Kovalev in March of 2015. Given an erroneous racial overtone by Pascal, violent fireworks for the event seemed inevitable.
Main Event
Sergey Kovalev vs Jean Pascal 12 rd. Light Heavyweight IBF, WBO, and WBA Title
Left left right and Pascal would eat it. Sergey would punish the inferior Pascal over and over again. Allowing Pascal to catch his breath and find his bearings, only to be delivered another powerful combination. It was as if Kovalev was torturing him slowly. He could have ended it multiple times but seemed to intentionally withdraw. Freddie Roach, the trainer for Pascal, almost stopped it after the 6th, but a pleading Pascal was granted another round. Wisely, the plea was not accepted after the 7th and Freddie Roach ended the lopsided affair.
If there was doubts of Kovalevs intentions during the fight, they were eliminated when Max Kellerman ask him point blank and Kovalev responded, “yes, I would make more rounds for more pain.” Kovalev wins via RTD7 and remains without loss at 29-0-1
Undercard
Dmitry Mikhaylenko vs. Karim Mayfield 10 rd. Welterweight
A wild rush by Karim Mayfield set off the encounter with Dmitry Mikhaylenko. Mayfield lunged forward and almost ended up in press row. However, the frantic pace established by Mayfield would quickly chill. When shots by Mikhaylenko firmly landed and placed Mayfield in protection mode. Mayfield would find himself fighting off his back foot most of the night. He would slide laterally only to be caught in the corners to receive another offensive attack from Mikhaylenko.
Perfectly described as a volume puncher by the HBO commentary, the war of attrition waged on Mayfield by Mikhaylenko revealed its brilliance late in the fight. Beginning in the 7th it was obvious Mayfield was exhausted and merely existing in the ring. It was a successful survival mode, as Mayfield lasted until the cards, only to be delivered the obvious verdict. Dmitry Mikhaylenko wins via ud10 with scores of 100-90, 100-90, 99-91 and improves to 21-0.
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