HBO Boxing coverage – Kovalev vs. Pascal from Montreal

By Jeremy Wall

Light-Heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev stopped Jean Pascal in the eighth round on Saturday, March 14th at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Pascal was also knocked down in the third round. It the first time that Pascal had both been knocked down and had lost via TKO. The show aired on HBO.

Kovalev (27-0-1, 4 KOs) was defending the IBF and WBO World Light-Heavyweight titles and the WBA Super World Light-Heavyweight title. He was coming off the highest profile win of his career, beating 49-year-old Bernard Hopkins in November in a one-sided decision in Atlantic City. In 2014, Kovalev also had a second round stoppage win over Blake Caparello and a seventh round knockout of Cedric Agnew, both also in Atlantic City. Kovalev is widely considered the best boxer worldwide at light-heavyweight.

Pascal’s most recent fight was against Roberto Bolonti in Montreal in December, which ended in a no-contest when Bolonti couldn’t continue after an inadvertent foul by Pascal in the second round. Prior to the Bolonti fight, Pascal, a former Light-Heavyweight champion, had won three in a row. His last loss was via unanimous decision to Hopkins in May 2011. It was a rematch of their fight in December 2010, which had gone to a majority decision draw.

Kovalev was considered the favourite going into the fight, based on his recent win over Hopkins as well as his knockout power. Pascal, however, is an unpredictable fighter that has a reputation for being able to pull off upsets.

The crowd at the Bell Centre was hot for the fight. The story of the match was whether the hometown favourite Pascal would be cunning enough to survive the powerful onslaught of the unbeaten Kovalev and find a way to win. The first round was competitive. In the second round, Pascal landed a left hook, but Kovalev came back with a hard straight right. Kovalev pressed forward with just under a minute left, landing a combo that included a hard overhand right.

In the third, Kovalev scored a knock down with less than ten seconds left in the round. Kovalev backed Pascal against the ropes and connected with a hard right, which knocked Pascal through the ropes. Pascal started the round well, landing head and body shots, but Kovalev pressed forward and scored the knock down.

Kovalev came out fast in round four, backing Pascal against the ropes with a flurry of power, looking to finish. Pascal spent the first part of the round backing away from Kovalev, attempting to survive. But the crowd would go crazy every time Pascal showed signs of life, including a straight right that earned a nod from Kovalev. Pascal fared better in round five, landing combos to the head and body that won him the round and kept the crowd on their feet. The sixth round was also close, with Pascal chasing Kovalev with hard body shots in the final moments of the round, earning another round in Pascal’s favour. The fight slowed in the seventh, a close round with Kovalev looking for power shots and Pascal going for the body.

In the eighth round, Kvalev came out strong, battering Pascal with lefts and rights to the body and head. While Kovalev was battering Pascal in the corner, the former fell down. Even though the crowd went crazy thinking Pascal had survived the barrage and scored a knock down, it was ruled a slip. They restarted the fight and Pascal backed into the corner and Kovalev hit a couple of lefts, with Pascal still looking dazed from the earlier barrage. Pascal was still standing when the ref stepped in and stopped it. The crowd was displeased, to say the least. They showed Pascal’s daughter, Angel, crying at ringside.

Kovalev was leading 68-64 on all three judges’ scorecards when the fight was stopped.

“How I started I didn’t like,” Kovalev said. “But after the fourth round I got control of Jean and what you saw – I got him with a good right hand and he lost.”

Pascal was unhappy with the stoppage and called for a rematch.

“It was a good fight for the fans, an action fight. I did my best,” Pascal said. “I don’t want to take anything away from Kovalev. He’s a great champion but that was a bullshit stoppage because I was still in the fight. That was a tough fight for both of us, and I don’t know why the referee just stopped the fight. It’s not hockey.”

According to CompuBox, Kovalev landed 122 and threw 471 for 26%. Pascal threw loss, but landed at a higher ratio with 68 landed out of 200 punches thrown for 34%.

“He hurt me with a couple of good punches but I never lost control,” Kovalev said. “I kept my mind in control and I did my job. It’s boxing.”

The fight aired on HBO in the United States, but wasn’t available on HBO in Canada. Most of the big name fights involving Quebec boxers air via pay per view in Quebec through Videotron. The show was available in Quebec for $69.95 (although I saw $64.95 quoted elsewhere). I don’t know about the availability of the fight elsewhere in Canada, as Videotron only services Quebec, as well as parts of French-speaking Ontario and New Brunswick. Thus, the fight was blacked out on HBO Canada, which instead replayed the Golovkin-Murray fight from February and the Alvarado-Rios fight from January.

I have no idea what kind of buy rates these fights draw in Quebec, but Pascal, for example, is a household name in the province. All but two of his thirty-three career professional fights have taken place in Quebec and he draws well for his fights at the Bell Centre. It might be the case that boxing is so popular in Quebec that making it difficult to see these fights elsewhere in Canada is worth the additional revenue from French-Canadian pay per view.

What is interesting now, is that with the win, Kovalev becomes the mandatory challenger for Adonis Stevenson’s WBC Light-Heavyweight title. Stevenson was ringside for the fight. Stevenson (25-1-0, 21 KOs) is scheduled to defend the WBC Light-Heavyweight title against Sakio Bika (32-6-3, 21 KOs) on April 4th in Quebec City. The fight is in the main event of Premier Boxing’s debut on CBS. It is Premier’s second network show, after debuting on NBC on March 7th. Premier also had their debut on Spike on March 13th. Kovalev also owes a mandatory title shot to Nadjib Mohammedi (37-3, 23 KOs), who stopped Lee Campbell in the sixth round on the undercard.

“For [Stevenson vs Bika] Quebec will not be left behind as the network TVA Sports will also broadcast the event live,” stated a press release by Groupe Yvon Michel in February. Michel is Stevenson’s promoter, and formerly Pascal’s promoter before a split the two last year. It will probably be the biggest fight of Stevenson’s career that will be available for free in Quebec. The financials are interesting here, because if Yvon Michel makes more money broadcasting his fights on pay per view than on free television in Quebec, he would theoretically be taking in less revenue for the Stevenson-Bilka fight with it being on TVA Sports. But that might not be the case.

What amazes me about what Haymon is doing with Premier is being able to create something this ambitious without creating problems with promoters and broadcasters, especially when you consider how many people have their hands in the box office jackpot of a big money fight.

Kovalev vs. Stevenson is the biggest money fight right now at light-heavyweight. Kathy Duva and her company, Main Event Promotions, along with Stevenson sued Al Haymon and Adonis Stevenson for backing out of a fight between the two boxers last year. They settled out of court.

“I haven’t talked to them since Yvon Michel told me that everything was fine [ith the Kovalev-Stevenson fight],” Duva told RingTV.com. “Can [Kovalev vs. Stevenson] happen? Mayweather-Pacquiao was made. Anything is possible. I think Sergey will fight for the WBC title, though. If Stevenson doesn’t want to fight Sergey, the title will be vacated. Then he’ll fight someone else for the title.”

“Kathy Duva has requested to the WBC to have the winner of that fight be the mandatory contender to Stevenson,” Yvon Michel told TheSweetScience.com. “We love it and will go for it.”

“Stevenson wants it and [Al Haymon] will support that,” added Michel. “It would certainly go to purse bid because I can’t see a negotiated agreement, though.”

“I will fight Jean Pascal or Sergey Kovalev next. I have no problem with that,” said Stevenson. “We will fight the winner, no problem. I really have no problem fighting anybody, anywhere, any time. I don’t care.”

Kovalev has been a consistent draw on HBO. His fight with Agnew in March 2014 was the first time Kovalev headlined on HBO. It drew an average of 1.006 million viewers with a peak at 1.048 million, going up against NCAA basketball and WSOF.

Kovalev’s fight against Caparello in August drew an average of 990,000 viewers and peaked at 1.052 million. That fight was actually the co-main of a card that featured Brandon Rios vs. Diego Chaves in the main event. Kovalev’s fight outdrew the Rios-Chaves fight, the latter of which only drew an average of 936,000 viewers and a peak of 1.003 million.

Kovalev’s biggest career fight against Hopkins in November drew an average of 1.328 million viewers with a peak of 1.397 million, making it the second most watched fight on HBO in 2014 behind Chavez-Vera II. Pascal also drew big ratings against Hopkins in 2011, bringing in an average of 1.8 million viewers for their fight on HBO. Pascal also drew an average of 982,000 viewers for his fight against Bute on HBO in 2014.

Pascal doesn’t have the same marquee value as Hopkins, but Kovalev has proven to be a draw and Pascal is a bigger name than either Agnew or Caparello, so HBO should have drawn well for this fight. The fight, however, did go up against UFC 185, which might siphon away viewership. The undercard for Kovalev-Pascal began at 9:30pm ET, in the final half-hour of the UFC 185 prelims on FX. The Kovalev-Pascal fight didn’t start until well into the UFC pay per view broadcast.