Pure Pascal

Tonight in Montreal, Jean Pascal moved even further up the ladder in the super middleweight division, retaining his NABF belt with a surprisingly straightforward win over the veteran Nigerian Canadian Kingsley Ikeke.

Pascal improves his record to 18-0, while Ikeke, fighting for the first time at 168 and the first time in 20 months, drops to 23-3.

Pascal made his one sided victory look easy from bell to bell, neutralizing Ikeke’s enormous height advantage and making him fight on the inside. The two men almost appeared as if they were the same height at times. Ikeke’s 6’4 frame should have towered over Pascal’s more modest 5’11, but Ikeke fought small, hunching over and trying to bring the fight to the hometown boy, who was noticeably stronger.

Big mistake. Pascal seized the opportunity every chance he got to remind Ikeke of that fact, mostly with hard shots to the noggin. Ikeke, who is not known for anything remotely resembling smooth, looked even more awkward than usual Friday night, his head movements sometimes resembling those of a break dancer doing the robot and his body looking like it was done up in twine.

The confidence that is a big part of the Pascal program was in full effect throughout the course of the fight. He waited around, with his hands down and oozed into the many openings that Ikeke offered up, springing into the holes and landing precise power punches (the right hand was the punch of choice) to the Ikeke bobblehead in front of him.

The crowd would get a little taste of the speed that Pascal is known for in each round, most notably the 4^th, 5^th and 8^th. Like heroin addicts, they wanted more, but Pascal was relaxed and unhurried throughout most of the battle, not giving it up for long periods. He almost appeared annoyed to find Ikeke still standing in front of him come the 8^th round, and tried (but failed) to finish the job in the 9^th, when Ikeke looked like he was on his way down in the last seconds.  The cross expression on Pascal’s face could also have been his default expression for pain, as he appeared to injure his right hand in the 11^th.

Pascal called himself the “best pound for pound prospect in the world.” His performance tonight, while impressive, lacked a bit of spark and hustle. He certainly proved that he has places to go, and time to get there. But it would have been nice to get another hit.

Scores were 118-110, 117-111 and 115-113.

Jean Pascal vs Kingsley Ikeke. Now That’s a Fight.

Kingsley Ikeke was one of the rising stars of the middleweight division back in 2005 when he fought then unheralded, now feared Arthur Abraham for the IBF title in Leipzig, Germany.

The Nigerian born Canadian was signed to Golden Boy Promotions. He was living in LA and trained by Freddie Roach. He was coming off a 9 victory winning streak, the last being against a prime Antwun Echols (then at 31-6-1) in an IBF eliminator bout, where he demonstrated efficiently and smartly exactly why he should insure his jab for a million dollars. It was his secret weapon. Only everybody knew about it. And for sure people knew about it after seeing Echols’ baseball sized right eye and generally lumpy face at the end of the ESPN broadcast. He was quickly becoming one of the most avoided middleweights in the division due to his height, reach and awkward style.

Arthur Abraham ended Ikeke’s ascension to the top of the middleweight ranks with a 5^th round stoppage victory and his first title. Reports from that loss were that Ikeke was drained from making 160 pounds and simply wasn’t at his best.

And then he disappeared. Off the television screens and below the radar.