By Ian S Palmer
Undefeated Interim WBA Light Heavyweight Champion Marcus Browne of Staten Island, New York will be taking on Haitian-born Jean Pascal at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York this Saturday, August 3rd. The 12-round tilt can be seen in North America on the Fox network. Browne won the interim belt and the WBC Silver Light Heavyweight title the last time out with a unanimous decision over Badou Jack in January. Pascal, who fights out of Quebec, Canada, dropped a unanimous decision to WBA World Champion Dmitry Bivol in November.
Browne enters the clash with a perfect mark of 23-0 along with 16 Kos. He’s a 28-year-old southpaw who has 96 rounds of experience to his name since making his pro debut in 2012. He’s just over 6-feet-1-inch tall with a wingspan of 75.5 inches. Browne enjoyed a pretty good amateur career as he boxed at the 2012 Olympics in London, England, but was beaten by Damien Hooper on points 13-11 in his first contest of the tournament.
Browne has better-than-average power in his fists as his current knockout ratio stands at 70 per cent. He’s been down a couple of times in his career including in the fifth round against Lenin Castillo last august. Browne’s biggest wins have been against Jack, Sean Monaghan, Thomas Williams Jr., Gabriel Campillo, Radivoje Kalajdzic, Cornelius White, Aaron Pryor Jr., George Blades and Otis Griffin. He’s not actually the hardest guy to hit in the ring and that makes him a pretty exciting boxer to watch.
The 36-year-old Pascal, a former world champion, originally retired last year but then decided against it. He’ll be entering the ring with a record of 33-6-1 along with 20 Kos. He’s fought most of his career out of the Montreal area and is a two-time former champion at light heavyweight. Pascal has a 72-inch reach and stands 5-feet-11-inches tall, which means he’s 2.5-inches shorter than Browne and has a 3.5-inch reach disadvantage. Pascal’s strong and generally aggressive with a decent amount of power in his fists. He isn’t considered a knockout artist though as his KO ratio currently stands at 49 per cent.
Pascal has a pretty good chin and speed to go along with his skills even though he was stopped by Sergey Kovalev in 2015 and again in 2016 . 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, Bernard Hopkins and Eleider Alvarez with his other three defeats coming to Froch, Hopkins and Alvarez by decisions.
Pascal usually lets his hands go and pressures his opponents while displaying pretty good footwork.
His knockouts usually come after he’s worn his opponent down for several rounds but he has enough power to drop anyone if he lands one square on the chin. Pascal has plenty of experience with 301 rounds under his belt since turning pro in 2005.
Prediction…
Pascal certainly has to be aware of Browne’s power and needs to establish his own. He also needs to get inside on his bigger opponent and outwork him. Pascal will put up a good fight and should have his moments but I don’t think he has enough left in the tank to beat Browne, who’s eight years younger.
