By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten Eleider Alvarez of Colombia will be facing Jean Pascal of Haiti at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada this Saturday, June 3rd. This is actually a hometown fight for both boxers as they both fight out of Quebec. The 12-round bout for Alvarez’s WBC Silver Light Heavyweight Title can be seen on Showtime in the U.S. while Canadian fans will have to fork over the cash for pay-per-view. Alvarez last fought in February when he stopped former super middleweight champ Lucian Bute in the fifth round while Pascal stopped Ricardo Marcelo Ramallo in the third round in December.
The 33-year-old Alvarez will enter the ring with a perfect record of 22-0 along with 11 Kos. He’s a former Colombian Olympian who fought at the 2008 Games in Beijing, China and also has pro victories over Robert Berridge, Isaac Chilemba, Ryno Liebenberg, Andrew Gardner, Edison Miranda, Alexander Johnson, Anatoliy Dudchenko and Isidro Ranon Prieto. Alvarez stands 6-feet tall with a reach of 75.5 inches. He isn’t really known as a one-punch knockout artist and his current knockout ratio is 50 per cent. Alvarez turned pro in 2009 and has boxed 142 rounds since then.
The 34-year-old Pascal has fought most of his career out of Montreal and is a two-time former champion at light heavyweight. He’ll enter the ring with a record of 31-4-1 with 18 Kos. He has a 72-inch reach and stands 5-feet-11-inches tall. Pascal is strong and generally aggressive with a decent amount of power in his fists, but isn’t considered a knockout artist either as his KO ratio stands at 49 per cent. He has a decent chin and speed to go along with his skills even though he was stopped twice by Sergey Kovalev twice in his last four outings.
He’s been in the ring with some fine light heavyweights and super middleweights such as Kovalev, Adrian Diaconu, Carl Froch, Chad Dawson, Lucian Bute and Bernard Hopkins with his other two defeats coming to Froch and Hopkins by decisions. Pascal usually lets his hands and pressures his opponents awhile displaying pretty good footwork. His knockouts usually come after he’s worn his opponent down for several rounds, but has enough power to drop anyone if he lands one square on the chin. The same is true of Alvarez though. Pascal has plenty of experience with 253 pro rounds since 2005.
Prediction…
The winner of this contest is hoping to get a shot at WBC Champion Adonis Stevenson, who’ll be headlining the card with a rematch against Poland’s Andrzej Fonfara. While there’s not much difference in their age, skills and power, Alvarez seems to be working his way up the rankings while Pascal is slipping down them. This should be a pretty even fight, but I think Alvarez should do enough to win it and may even stop Pascal somewhere along the way, which would probably be in the second half of the contest.
