Jean Pascal started on fire, slowed almost to a crawl but hung on to win a split decision over Badou Jack in a 12-round light heavyweight bout on the Gervonta Davis-Yuriorkis Gamboa card Saturday in Atlanta.
Pascal opened their fight like a mad man, firing hard shot after hard shot in an immediate test of Jack’s resilience. The onslaught included a right to the side of the head that put Jack down in Round 4, which gave Pascal a 10-8 round and control of the fight at that point.
However, by the middle rounds, Pascal had begun to slow down while Jack maintained a solid pace and seemed to seize the momentum.
Jack punctuated his performance by putting a seemingly exhausted Pascal down early in the final round but failing to finish him off, which cost the Swede the fight.
Two judges scored it 114-112 (seven rounds to five) for Pascal and one had Jack winning by the same score. Boxing Junkie scored it 115-111 for Jack.
“I think I was in control the whole fight,” Pascal said in the ring afterward. “I kept the fight in the middle of ring most of the time. I was the better fighter. Badou Jack is a great fight but I won the fight.”
Pascal (35-6-1, 20 KOs) fought with overwhelming intensity early in the fight. He threw a lot of punches and he threw them hard, as if he was attempting to end the fight early. Jack blocked a lot of those shots but enough got through to make Jack’s life very difficult.
Jack maintained his poise, though, even after the knockdown. While Pascal, 37, slowed down, Jack, 36, stayed busy. Pascal had his moments in the second half of the fight but, clearly, the busier, more precise Jack controlled the action.
The knockdown in the final round probably clinched it for some observers but two judges saw things differently, which gave Jack (22-3-3, 13 KOs) another in a frustrating series of controversial decision losses.
“Of course I feel I won the fight but it is what it is,” Jack said. He was then asked whether he would describe the fight as a bad decision. “I’m not sure,” he responded. “Maybe he was the better man tonight. I don’t know.
“… I thought I was winning. Maybe I’m wrong.”
Jack said he’d love to fight Pascal again. And the Haitian-Canadian seemed amenable to the idea. The controversial result almost makes it imperative.