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00:00:00And now we're live at ringside,
00:00:01and with me, one of the great fighters in the world,
00:00:03you recognize Andre Ward,
00:00:05former king of the 168-pound weight class,
00:00:08now moving up to 175 pounds,
00:00:11becoming a full-fledged light heavyweight.
00:00:13Andre, great to see you here tonight.
00:00:15It has been reported that you're looking at
00:00:17an upcoming fight, perhaps in March,
00:00:21perhaps against an opponent named Sullivan Barrero.
00:00:23Where do we stand as we look forward
00:00:24to that possible Andre Ward appearance?
00:00:28Right now, I don't have any paperwork,
00:00:29but I think it's pretty much done,
00:00:30so the paperwork should be coming any day now.
00:00:33And March 26, Oakland, California, Oracle Arena,
00:00:36that's where it's looking to go down.
00:00:38All right. So if, in fact,
00:00:40you're able to fight Sullivan Barrero on that date,
00:00:43looking down the road, it's also been reported
00:00:46that you have a contractual arrangement
00:00:48which would see you fighting Sergey Kovalev
00:00:50after perhaps one more preparatory fight.
00:00:53How accurate are those reports?
00:00:55A lot of reports out there about me now, huh?
00:00:56Yes, there are. There are many things
00:00:58being reported about you.
00:00:59Um, yeah, definitely.
00:01:00This is a fight that is gonna happen.
00:01:02I think it's a fight that the fans want,
00:01:04and these are the type of fights
00:01:06that should happen in each division,
00:01:07the best against the best,
00:01:09and I have to prove that I can compete
00:01:10with the best at this weight class.
00:01:11So at the end of the day,
00:01:12we both have to keep winning,
00:01:14and if we do that, I think it's not a matter of if.
00:01:16It's just a matter of when.
00:01:17Does the contract stipulate
00:01:19that you get two more chances to fight
00:01:21prior to entering the ring against Kovalev?
00:01:23Uh, they're working on that.
00:01:25My team's working out all the details.
00:01:27I just try to keep things simple.
00:01:29You know, I know March 26th is what I have,
00:01:31and I'm eating and sleeping and drinking that fight,
00:01:34uh, and that fighter,
00:01:36and, you know, those other things will work itself out.
00:01:38But at the end of the day,
00:01:39you're now a full-fledged light heavyweight,
00:01:41and you're here tonight to watch
00:01:42Sergey Kovalev and John Pascal
00:01:45probably expecting, as the rest of us do,
00:01:47that Kovalev, who knocked Pascal out the first time around,
00:01:50will do so again.
00:01:51Yeah, I don't really have any predictions.
00:01:53Um, I didn't analyze the fight from that standpoint.
00:01:57I'm here to enjoy the city and, uh, just be a spectator.
00:02:00I'm happy to be here.
00:02:01Great to see you, Andre.
00:02:02Look forward to seeing you in the ring soon.
00:02:05Let's look ahead to some upcoming programming
00:02:06here on HBO.
00:02:10Immediately following this telecast,
00:02:12stay tuned for a replay of Real Sports,
00:02:14which includes a look at Klitschko Conqueror Tyson Fury.
00:02:17The new heavyweight champ is outspoken,
00:02:19controversial, and has a fascinating family history.
00:02:24Tuesday night, February 16th,
00:02:25it's the premiere of the five-part series
00:02:27Gonzaga, the March to Madness.
00:02:29It's a behind-the-scenes look,
00:02:31chronicling Gonzaga University's men's basketball season.
00:02:35February 27th, it's the return of Terrence Bud Crawford.
00:02:39Caught with a left hand, and Tony Weeks is gonna stop it.
00:02:42Terrence Crawford, TKO dead.
00:02:44The Omaha native will put his 140-pound title on the line
00:02:47against Hammerin' Hank Lundy.
00:02:50Also that night, Puerto Rico's rising star, Felix Verdejo,
00:02:54wears off against undefeated William Silva.
00:02:58On Wednesday night, March 16th,
00:03:00it's the next installment of my show, The Fight Game,
00:03:03where we discuss storylines, newsmakers, and issues
00:03:06that are top of mind in boxing.
00:03:09April 9th, MGM Grand Garden Arena will host the rubber match
00:03:12between Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao
00:03:14and welterweight title holder Timothy Bradley.
00:03:16In their first encounter,
00:03:18Bradley won a controversial decision,
00:03:20but in the rematch, Pacquiao got redemption
00:03:22with a dominant victory.
00:03:23So when and where will the third fight take place?
00:03:26I don't care. I just want to be there.
00:03:28Now it's 12 more rounds to settle the score.
00:03:31Don't miss a moment of the action.
00:03:32For more information on the schedule and the fighters,
00:03:35go to hbo.com and insidehboboxing.com.
00:03:44Welcome back to ringside of the Bell Center in Montreal,
00:03:47and let's turn our attention now to the main event,
00:03:49the rematch between Sergey Kovalev,
00:03:52who is now seen as the dominant light heavyweight
00:03:54in the world and holds three belts
00:03:56in the light heavyweight division,
00:03:58against Jean Pascal, who was a challenger to Kovalev
00:04:01and lost here a year ago in the Bell Center,
00:04:04and the fight produced enough controversy
00:04:06that Pascal saw it in particular as unfinished business.
00:04:10Here's what took place last March.
00:04:12Kovalev in the early rounds,
00:04:13hammering Pascal with hard shots,
00:04:15and when Pascal went over the ropes like that
00:04:18right there in round number three,
00:04:19that was the first official knockdown
00:04:22of his entire career.
00:04:24He came out and got hammered again
00:04:25at the beginning of the fourth round,
00:04:26but by the fifth round, Pascal was beginning to land back
00:04:29with some clean counter shots,
00:04:32and he landed against Kovalev the way few others have,
00:04:35testing the Russian's chin through rounds four and five,
00:04:39but then in the eighth round,
00:04:40Kovalev got Pascal in trouble again,
00:04:43slipped and fell in the corner on a wet spot,
00:04:46and that momentarily interrupted the damage
00:04:49and gave Pascal a moment to breathe,
00:04:51but then seconds later, Kovalev was on him again,
00:04:54and another hard right hand
00:04:56that put Pascal in trouble in the corner
00:04:58prompted referee Luis Pabon to stop the fight.
00:05:02Pascal didn't like the stoppage,
00:05:04and later on in the summer,
00:05:05when he didn't fight well against Ionescu Gonzalez,
00:05:08a former Cuban amateur star,
00:05:10he split from his former trainer.
00:05:12After losing to Kovalev and barely edging out Gonzalez,
00:05:15Pascal parted ways with longtime head trainer Mark Ramsey.
00:05:19His search for a replacement took him to Los Angeles,
00:05:22where at the Wild Card Gym,
00:05:23he hoped to convince a Hall of Fame trainer
00:05:26to take the reins.
00:05:34He came to my gym one day to ask me if I do mitts with him,
00:05:37and I said, yeah, sure, so I did mitts with him,
00:05:40and then he went home for a while,
00:05:41and then he came back and said he wants me to work with him.
00:05:46I heard that his work ethic wasn't that good,
00:05:48and he's a little bit lazy and so forth,
00:05:49but then when he kept showing up every day,
00:05:52and I says, this guy, he hasn't gone home yet,
00:05:54and he's working the mitts with the other guys,
00:05:56and I'm watching him a little bit,
00:05:58and I like his work ethic.
00:06:01I wanna see maybe a little more body work
00:06:03instead of tying him up.
00:06:04Freddie got the eye of the tiger.
00:06:07He see things very quickly.
00:06:08He see small details that can make big difference,
00:06:12so that's why he's such a great coach,
00:06:14because you have to be born with that.
00:06:16You're pushing that a little bit.
00:06:17Here.
00:06:19Quick, all right?
00:06:21Right over the top, okay?
00:06:24He has a great right hand.
00:06:25I know that's his power shot,
00:06:26but he doesn't have a lot of confidence in his left,
00:06:29so my first job was to get the confidence in the left hand,
00:06:33and I think we've come a very long way with that.
00:06:37His left hand is way better than his right,
00:06:38to be honest with you.
00:06:39I mean, his jab, his hook, his uppercut.
00:06:42Of course, when Freddie Walsh tell you
00:06:44that you have one of the best left in the business,
00:06:48that boosts your confidence,
00:06:50and right now, I'm very, very confident.
00:06:52He's taking my advice, and he's doing really well.
00:06:55He's getting better.
00:06:55He gets a little bit wild sometimes, though.
00:06:58I don't like when he does that,
00:07:00and last time he did it, I said,
00:07:03okay, next time you do that, okay,
00:07:04if you come back to the corner and I'm not there,
00:07:07I'll be at my house.
00:07:09He's come a long way in a very short time.
00:07:11He picks things up very quickly.
00:07:13I just hope that he carries it all into the fight
00:07:16and not become that crazy, wild guy
00:07:18that just is looking for a big knockout,
00:07:20trying to get lucky.
00:07:24Back live at ringside and working with us tonight,
00:07:26of course, is Bernard Hopkins.
00:07:28You probably know that he fought Jean Pascal twice
00:07:31at the summit of the light heavyweight division.
00:07:34Bernard, it makes sense for any fighter
00:07:35who wants to change his game
00:07:37to go to a great trainer like Freddie Roach,
00:07:39but you fought Pascal.
00:07:41You know, it's always been more about athletic talent
00:07:43than about boxing technique.
00:07:45Can Freddie make him into a more competent boxer
00:07:48at this stage of his career?
00:07:49Well, I don't think so.
00:07:50I mean, he's been with Jean Pascal
00:07:52for at least about six weeks, maybe seven,
00:07:56and I think as great as Freddie Roach is as a coach,
00:07:59I don't think it's enough time for him to change
00:08:02what Jean Pascal is known to do,
00:08:05and that is swing for defense,
00:08:06throw a lot of right hands, and hopefully he hits.
00:08:09I think that at the end,
00:08:10I think that Jean Pascal will go back
00:08:13to what he used to doing.
00:08:15And you know what?
00:08:15As great as Freddie, as I mentioned, has been,
00:08:18and helped me out a lot in my career,
00:08:21I don't think he had enough time
00:08:22to be able to change or at least correct
00:08:25the real important things that need to be corrected
00:08:27in Jean Pascal.
00:08:28I agree.
00:08:29Most likely the moment comes in the fight
00:08:30when Pascal is trying to land something big,
00:08:33and Kovalev is the one who's more capable,
00:08:36more equipped, and proved his ability
00:08:38to land something big last spring.
00:08:40With all the talk about Freddie Roach and Pascal,
00:08:42the trainer in Kovalev's corner could be overlooked.
00:08:45The story of how John David Jackson met Sergei
00:08:48is an interesting one,
00:08:49and while they've been together for four years
00:08:51and 12 fights now,
00:08:52their path to this point was not always so harmonious.
00:09:03One day I get a phone call from Vegas.
00:09:05He says, John, I have a fighter for you.
00:09:07And I said, okay, what's his name?
00:09:08He told me Sergei Kovalev,
00:09:09which I forgot as soon as he told me who he was.
00:09:11A few days later, Sergei arrives.
00:09:13We didn't understand each other
00:09:15because I had very bad English at that time.
00:09:19The lines of communication, they're not really that good.
00:09:21I said, come to the gym tomorrow, we'll work out.
00:09:23Come the next day, disastrous.
00:09:27Sergei is his own guy.
00:09:29He likes to do things his way.
00:09:30Well, I'm a teacher, I'm gonna do things my way.
00:09:33You're in my gym now.
00:09:35Training wasn't as well as I wanted it to go.
00:09:38I mean, like I said, Sergei is his own person
00:09:40and he has his own ideas.
00:09:41So we clashed.
00:09:42I said, man, I don't want to train this guy.
00:09:45I tried, he's just a little bit too difficult.
00:09:47I told my assistant, I said, listen,
00:09:49after this fight, it's over.
00:09:51Originally from Chelyabinsk, Russia.
00:09:55But the funny thing happened that night in the arena.
00:09:58He did everything that I asked him to do.
00:10:02He dispatched Darnell Boone the way I wanted him to,
00:10:04nice and easy.
00:10:06So I'm walking back with my assistant, Derek Santos,
00:10:08and I said, you know what?
00:10:09Remember all that trash I was talking
00:10:11these past few weeks?
00:10:12I said, cancel all that.
00:10:14This guy can fight.
00:10:15He's gonna be champion of the world.
00:10:16Beautiful work.
00:10:17Another round of thanks.
00:10:18Watch his head, move your head, okay?
00:10:20With each passing fight,
00:10:21we, I guess, begin to trust more of each other.
00:10:24One, two, three.
00:10:26There you go.
00:10:27Good roll.
00:10:28I don't know how for John,
00:10:30maybe I'm very difficult person, you know?
00:10:34Now I ask John what I want and what I see,
00:10:37how to work against my next opponent.
00:10:39It's like a compliment to each other.
00:10:44Four years removed from those early difficulties,
00:10:47tonight, Sergey Kovalev and John David Jackson
00:10:49enter the ring together for the 12th time.
00:10:52And with the rematch against John Pascal looming,
00:10:55the trainer offers a blunt assessment
00:10:57of the brand new partnership in the opposing corner.
00:10:59Once Pascal gets hit by the punch
00:11:01that Sergey's gonna hit him with,
00:11:03he's gonna revert back to whatever he did before
00:11:05he met with Freddie Roach.
00:11:06Because they don't have enough time
00:11:07for Freddie to really implement what he needs to
00:11:09upon Pascal to become a better fighter,
00:11:11if that's at all possible.
00:11:13The first fight with Sergey took a lot out of him.
00:11:14So the second fight, trust me,
00:11:16there won't be much left with him.
00:11:17The one thing Freddie may be able to do
00:11:19is to show this kid how to survive a little bit longer.
00:11:22But, you know, the longer the fight goes,
00:11:24the more of a beating he's gonna take.
00:11:28Back live at ringside with Max Kellerman.
00:11:30Max Kovalev was favored last spring
00:11:31and won by knockout.
00:11:32So he's an even bigger favorite tonight.
00:11:34What's the danger?
00:11:36Well, I mean, it's boxing.
00:11:37You can always wind up with a cut
00:11:38and from a clash of heads.
00:11:40Kovalev could break his hand on Pascal.
00:11:42All these things are possible.
00:11:44Or, you know, Kovalev could get hit on the chin
00:11:46and caught just like any other fighter,
00:11:48particularly against Pascal,
00:11:50a guy who had his moments in their first fight.
00:11:53But here's a scary thought.
00:11:55As devastating as Kovalev has been,
00:11:57including in the first fight against Pascal,
00:12:00this is only his second rematch.
00:12:02In his first ever rematch
00:12:03against the very dangerous Darnell Boone,
00:12:05who'd knocked him down
00:12:06and lost an eight-round majority decision
00:12:08in their first fight,
00:12:09Kovalev turned in, at the time,
00:12:11a career-best second-round smashing knockout win.
00:12:16What if Kovalev, in the rematch,
00:12:19is just even more devastating than usual?
00:12:22In that case, the only thing for the boxing world to do
00:12:26is to watch as he devours these sacrificial lambs
00:12:29on the way to an eventual meeting,
00:12:32hopefully, with Andre Ward.
00:12:34All right, let's take a look at the tail of the tape now
00:12:36for Kovalev against Pascal.
00:12:38And you can see the one-year age advantage
00:12:41for the Russian fighter.
00:12:43Also has a one-inch height advantage,
00:12:45half-inch arm length advantage,
00:12:47measured from the armpit to the end of the fist.
00:12:49They were both a little bit
00:12:49under the 175-pound limit yesterday.
00:12:52They both put on about 10 pounds overnight,
00:12:55and Kovalev will go into the ring
00:12:56with an unofficial one-pound working advantage.
00:13:00Copy box numbers in the first fight,
00:13:03and you can see that Sergey Kovalev
00:13:04landed nearly twice as many punches as John Pascal,
00:13:08as well as landing the harder shots in the fight.
00:13:11He threw 271 more punches than Pascal
00:13:14and was dominating the action
00:13:16throughout much of the contest,
00:13:17other than those big counter shots
00:13:19that Pascal landed in return,
00:13:21especially with the right hand in rounds four and five.
00:13:27Ladies and gentlemen.
00:13:29Ladies and gentlemen,
00:13:30ladies and gentlemen,
00:13:32now coming to the ring,
00:13:34the challenger from Montreal,
00:13:37John
00:13:41Pascal!
00:14:56Come on, come on, come on.
00:15:14That was The Rocky Theme music
00:15:16for John Pascal
00:15:18and the actors in the ring
00:15:19in what has to be called
00:15:21his home court,
00:15:23the Bell Center.
00:15:26Bernard Hopkins, you fought him here
00:15:29north of the border twice.
00:15:31In the first fight, I thought the crowd lifted him,
00:15:34and he managed, early in the fight,
00:15:36to score two knockdowns against you
00:15:38before the fight ended in a draw.
00:15:40Having witnessed that, did you make a point
00:15:42in the second fight of getting on top of him earlier
00:15:46and trying to calm the crowd down?
00:15:48Well, yeah, first, I had to take
00:15:49the whole court advantage away from him,
00:15:51and also, I knew that he was one of those type of guys
00:15:54that come out in the first four or five rounds
00:15:57and is very dangerous, but I've seen that he fades later
00:16:00or in the mid-rounds of a four-round fight,
00:16:02and so I wanted to work him hard.
00:16:04I wanted to punch him hard before I just tire him out later.
00:16:07And here's our buddy Roy Jones
00:16:09now wrapping the support of his buddy, John Pascal.
00:16:14Jones was a helpful assistant trainer to Pascal
00:16:18in the first fight against Kovalev last year.
00:16:21That didn't help prevent Kovalev from knocking Pascal out,
00:16:24so tonight, Max Kellerman, he's here to do that other thing
00:16:28that he does so well.
00:16:30No one must have forgotten.
00:16:32Ha ha ha.
00:16:33♪
00:16:38♪
00:16:45♪
00:16:51And Roy continues to perform on the stage
00:16:54while Pascal now makes his way toward the ring.
00:16:58♪
00:17:03♪
00:17:08♪
00:17:13♪
00:17:15All this would be a lot more effective as crowd stimulus
00:17:18if Pascal were still the champion
00:17:20and had the privilege of walking second.
00:17:23And I think there's a recognition
00:17:24that Kovalev is just a devastating fighter,
00:17:27and so the crowd is here to support their guy,
00:17:29not necessarily expecting a victory.
00:17:32♪
00:17:37♪
00:17:38♪
00:17:46And now, escorting the champion to the ring
00:17:49from the Montreal Canadiens,
00:17:52Alexey Kovalev,
00:17:54here is the defending champion,
00:17:57Sergei Roshchev-Kovalev!
00:18:04♪
00:18:09♪
00:18:14♪
00:18:19♪
00:18:24♪
00:18:29♪
00:18:34♪
00:18:39♪
00:18:44♪
00:18:49♪
00:18:54♪
00:18:59♪
00:19:04♪
00:19:09So there's Kovalev,
00:19:11and now amid the Russian music,
00:19:14he will begin making his way to the ring.
00:19:16Bernard Hopkins, in the build-up to this fight,
00:19:19John Pascal has gone out of his way
00:19:22to make a variety of very provocative
00:19:24and salacious comments about Sergei Kovalev.
00:19:27Specifically, he has accused Kovalev
00:19:29of making racist comments about both him
00:19:32and the other Haitian-bred local
00:19:35light heavyweight star here in Montreal,
00:19:37Adonis Stevenson.
00:19:39Knowing what you know about Sergei Kovalev,
00:19:42is this the kind of guy
00:19:44whom you want to make angry against you?
00:19:46No, absolutely not,
00:19:48because Sergei right now has something to defend.
00:19:51A, he had to defend his championship belts.
00:19:53Now he has to defend what Pascal's been saying.
00:19:57Called him racist, called him this, called him that.
00:19:59But, you know, you don't wake up a guy
00:20:01that's already a giant,
00:20:03that might, for one second, might be asleep tonight.
00:20:06Now he's not.
00:20:07This wasn't, to me, wasn't a smart move by Pascal.
00:20:10Pascal is an ego fighter.
00:20:13He tries to feed his own ego,
00:20:15back himself into a corner,
00:20:17force himself to perform against all odds
00:20:19in a situation like this.
00:20:21And he's looking for motivation.
00:20:23He's looking for reasons,
00:20:25maybe attaching himself to a cause bigger than himself,
00:20:29in this case, against Kovalev,
00:20:31to give him any little advantage he can find.
00:20:34And Kovalev's response?
00:20:36Okay, now it is personal.
00:20:39Let's go to Michael Buffer for the official introductions.
00:20:44Mesdames et messieurs,
00:20:45il s'agit du Centre Belle Montréal.
00:20:48C'est l'événement principal
00:20:5012 rounds pour le championnat du monde.
00:20:53Ladies and gentlemen,
00:20:55from the Bell Centre of Montréal,
00:20:57Quebec, Canada,
00:20:59this is the featured bout of the evening,
00:21:0212 rounds of boxing
00:21:05for the light heavyweight championship
00:21:08of the world.
00:21:11And it's all brought to you by
00:21:13main events,
00:21:14Interbox,
00:21:15Crusher Promotions,
00:21:17and Jean-Pascal Promotions.
00:21:19This is a Videotron presentation
00:21:21sponsored by Coors Light.
00:21:24Mise à jour,
00:21:25le casino de Montréal,
00:21:27along with
00:21:28Rosneft
00:21:29and Mirco Vodka.
00:21:32Sanctioned by Régis Desecours,
00:21:34Descours et Desecours,
00:21:36responsable Michel Hamlin.
00:21:38Sanctioned by the IBF,
00:21:40the WBA,
00:21:41and the WBO.
00:21:43Les trois juges,
00:21:44the three judges scoring.
00:21:46From Canada,
00:21:47Pascual Procopio.
00:21:49From Puerto Rico,
00:21:50Nelson Vazquez.
00:21:52And from the United States,
00:21:54Steve Weisfeld.
00:21:55And,
00:21:56the referee,
00:21:57l'arbitre,
00:21:58the men in charge of the action at the bell,
00:22:00world championship veteran referee,
00:22:03Michael Griffin.
00:22:05And now,
00:22:06the officials are ready,
00:22:08the fighters are in the ring,
00:22:10and they are ready.
00:22:13Boxing fans,
00:22:14are you ready?
00:22:19Montreal,
00:22:21et vous priez!
00:22:27For the thousands in attendance,
00:22:29and the millions watching around the world,
00:22:32ladies and gentlemen,
00:22:33mesdames and messieurs,
00:22:36let's get ready to rumble!
00:22:49Fighting out of the blue corner,
00:22:51wearing brown,
00:22:52standing with his Hall of Fame trainer,
00:22:54Freddie Roach,
00:22:55and officially weighing in at 174,
00:22:58one half pounds.
00:22:59An excellent professional record,
00:23:01consisting of 30 victories,
00:23:03including 17 wins by knockout,
00:23:06with three defeats,
00:23:07and one draw.
00:23:09Originally from IET,
00:23:11but now living,
00:23:12training,
00:23:13and fighting out of Montreal,
00:23:15Quebec, Canada,
00:23:17the challenger,
00:23:18former light heavyweight champion of the world,
00:23:23mesdames et messieurs,
00:23:26Jean-Pierre Scott!
00:23:40And fighting out of the red corner,
00:23:42with his trainer,
00:23:43former world champion,
00:23:44John David Jackson,
00:23:46official weight,
00:23:47174,
00:23:48three quarter pounds.
00:23:50He has an unblemished professional record,
00:23:5328 victories,
00:23:55including 25 wins by knockout,
00:23:57without a loss,
00:23:59and one draw.
00:24:00From Chelyabinsk, Russia,
00:24:03the reigning and defending,
00:24:05undefeated,
00:24:06universally recognized,
00:24:08undisputed,
00:24:09light heavyweight champion of the world,
00:24:13Tommy Gasparra,
00:24:15Sergey Krasin,
00:24:21Kovalev!
00:24:36Let them clear the ring, Mike.
00:24:38Clear the ring.
00:24:39Yeah, yeah.
00:24:42Camera confirmed.
00:24:45I appreciate it.
00:24:46I'm just hoping I do too.
00:24:49Sergey!
00:24:51John!
00:24:56John!
00:25:01You gentlemen received my instructions in the dressing room.
00:25:04Obey the rules.
00:25:06Protect yourselves at all times.
00:25:08Touch gloves now, man.
00:25:09You're boxing at the bell.
00:25:10God bless you both.
00:25:12Touch gloves.
00:25:14Sergey Kovalev,
00:25:15one of the best in the world,
00:25:17one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world,
00:25:19and the recognized man at light heavyweight,
00:25:22has big plans in the not-too-distant future
00:25:24for some big fights,
00:25:26but he's got to get through
00:25:28the guy who's given him the best fight in recent years
00:25:31in their first go-round tonight.
00:25:39Their fight last year was, for a period of time,
00:25:42a fight of the year candidate
00:25:45until other, more explosive, closer battles
00:25:48came along later in the year,
00:25:50but at the time at which it took place,
00:25:52there were real fireworks,
00:25:53and people truly enjoyed watching it.
00:25:56Bernard Hopkins,
00:25:57John Pascal enters the ring tonight
00:25:59fighting with what I believe
00:26:00is the longest, bushiest beard
00:26:03I've ever seen on his chin.
00:26:05Is that beard enough to cushion
00:26:07some of his chin against Kovalev's blows?
00:26:11I think it's the opposite.
00:26:12I think it actually gives Sergey a target to go for
00:26:17because the beard is around your chin,
00:26:20which is nervous.
00:26:21That's where all the nerve's at, in your chin,
00:26:23so the only thing Sergey has to do is,
00:26:25you know, just concentrate on the beard,
00:26:27and he can't miss.
00:26:28The jaw, the high cheekbones,
00:26:30the whole jaw to the cheek is really vulnerable spots,
00:26:34so I think it serves Sergey a good, good target.
00:26:39Interesting.
00:26:40So it frames the target for him,
00:26:41makes it more visible.
00:26:42In other words, you're saying,
00:26:43if you were Pascal, you'd have shaved it off.
00:26:45If I was Pascal, I'd have shaved it off
00:26:47because those whiskers is too bushy,
00:26:49and it's a target, it's right there,
00:26:52and underneath the beard is his chin.
00:26:54Plus, the way Kovalev punches,
00:26:56he just needs a neighborhood shot.
00:26:57Anything in the neighborhood is gonna hurt you.
00:27:00Kovalev dabbing to the body early
00:27:02while looking upstairs.
00:27:04This is something he did in the first fight
00:27:06to set up his attack in the second and third rounds.
00:27:11First round is often a research
00:27:14and development-type enterprise for Kovalev.
00:27:17Pay attention to Sergey
00:27:18when he throws that straight left hand, Max,
00:27:21to the body of Pascal.
00:27:23He sets it up with that straight left to the body,
00:27:26and he looking to come over top,
00:27:27but Pascal need to do is not be in a straight line,
00:27:30not be in front of him to get hit with those punches
00:27:33to set him up for the big bomb.
00:27:41Michael Griffin's gonna call that a slip,
00:27:43not a knockdown.
00:27:44Kovalev was ready to celebrate a knockdown.
00:27:49Pascal did get hit,
00:27:50but it wasn't enough to bring him down.
00:27:52I agree.
00:27:53Along with a connection from the jab.
00:27:55Must have had his chin crossed,
00:27:56or perhaps he got stepped on or something.
00:27:58It didn't look like the kind of shot
00:27:59that would put him down.
00:28:00Although now Pascal has to convince Kovalev
00:28:02that he's not, in fact, hurt,
00:28:04because sometimes a situation like that
00:28:06can energize the fighter
00:28:08who thought he did score the knockdown.
00:28:10Right hand to the body by Kovalev.
00:28:12He better not get no false impression
00:28:14that he might have done something
00:28:15because he was playing in the hands of Kovalev.
00:28:22Can't be boxed.
00:28:23Counting eight power punches
00:28:24landed in the first round for Kovalev,
00:28:26and only one for Jean Pascal so far.
00:28:33Pascal gets in a left hook.
00:28:36His crowd gets very excited about that.
00:28:38-♪
00:28:40-♪
00:28:45-♪
00:28:50Move around.
00:28:56I got you. I got you. I got you.
00:29:00Listen, this guy's just trying to time you.
00:29:02Every time he punches, he's trying to time you.
00:29:04Go to the body for me.
00:29:05Start living with your body.
00:29:07Every time you try that right hand, duck.
00:29:09Don't stand in front of me.
00:29:22See, Pascal, Pascal.
00:29:26Pascal comes in, and he gets hit with a jab.
00:29:29That is a knockdown
00:29:30because he jumped into a straight jab by Sergey.
00:29:33Kovalev.
00:29:34A clean knockdown.
00:29:35A clean knockdown.
00:29:36It wasn't no stiff about that.
00:29:37That was a straight shot, a left hand,
00:29:39as Pascal comes in.
00:29:41So looking back, I'm thinking now it was a knockdown.
00:29:43You, Bernard?
00:29:44Yeah, it was a knockdown
00:29:45because he jumped into a jab that Sergey Kovalev...
00:29:48Harold, you agree it was a knockdown?
00:29:49Jim, he went down on the end of the punch.
00:29:51It should have definitely been called a knockdown,
00:29:53but it is what the referee says it is, period.
00:29:57Referee says no knockdown, it's no knockdown.
00:29:59That's for scoring purposes.
00:30:01The reality is,
00:30:02Kovalev has that kind of pop
00:30:04in just a plain old left jab, Bernard.
00:30:07You fought both these guys.
00:30:08What's the difference in the punching power?
00:30:14Difference in punching power
00:30:15between these two guys, Bernard?
00:30:17Well, Sergey Kovalev has the type of power
00:30:20that's sharper and it's coming,
00:30:22it's more precise than Pascal.
00:30:24Pascal's more a wide puncher, you know, lunging puncher.
00:30:28He normally throw a lot of arm punches,
00:30:30not a lot of sharp punches.
00:30:31That's the real big difference in these two guys
00:30:34because, I mean, Sergey, he throws his punches accurate.
00:30:37Straight jab, straight right hand.
00:30:38He doesn't waste, he doesn't wane the punches.
00:30:41He throws them accurately.
00:30:42Does he have thudding power?
00:30:44He has thudding power,
00:30:45but he also has a snap on those punches, you know,
00:30:48which is two really combinations that he has.
00:30:50He has both.
00:30:51You just seen a straight right hand.
00:30:52That was a sharp, straight right hand down the pipe.
00:30:55If he would've put a jab in behind there,
00:30:56he would've got more, of course,
00:30:58done with the combination.
00:31:04Kovalev's talking in round 2.
00:31:06Jean Pascal has just had his first ever
00:31:10corner-between rounds conversation with Freddie Roach.
00:31:14As the evening goes on,
00:31:15we'll be constantly looking to see if there's some evidence
00:31:18that Roach has affected a change in Pascal's style.
00:31:21Haven't seen it so far.
00:31:23We see that's when Kovalev feels really comfortable.
00:31:26He starts playing with his opponent,
00:31:28flashing the right hand, pawing with it,
00:31:31throwing the jab instead, stuff like that.
00:31:34Good left hook by Jean Pascal.
00:31:40Now Kovalev catches Pascal with a right hand coming in.
00:31:45It seems like Pascal has a more noticeable reaction
00:31:49when he gets hits by Roach.
00:31:51You can actually see that, you know,
00:31:52he don't like it and his body language shows it all
00:31:55that it's hurting him.
00:31:57Kovalev with a chopping right hand over the top.
00:31:59Now he sweeps the right hand.
00:32:01Kovalev has such sudden power in his shots.
00:32:05Even when Pascal seemed to have the advantage for a moment,
00:32:09it was Kovalev's shorter shots on the inside
00:32:12that seemed to do more damage in the exchange.
00:32:15Kovalev right now is really boxing him.
00:32:18Jim, he's really using the jab.
00:32:20He's throwing the right hand.
00:32:21He's off-balancing through the right hand.
00:32:23Then Pascal should make sure that he takes advantage of that
00:32:26when he mitches and he lunges,
00:32:27because that's the only opportunities he's gonna have
00:32:30early in this fight.
00:32:31And what everybody took away from Kovalev's
00:32:33unanimous decision victory over you, Bernard,
00:32:35is, oh, look, he can really box.
00:32:38Oh, I found that out the hard way.
00:32:40But, you know, he's got a lot of experience.
00:32:43I found that out the hard way.
00:32:44But, you know, Pascal hopefully looked at the tapes.
00:32:49First two rounds seem to belong to Kovalev.
00:32:51Next on HBO, stay tuned for real sports.
00:32:54Boxing fans will be quite interested in the profile
00:32:57of new heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
00:33:00He is a fascinating character,
00:33:02and that's the nice way to say it,
00:33:04both in and out of the ring.
00:33:09All right, now, you need to move your right more, okay?
00:33:12All right, yes.
00:33:13Now, when you send that foot in the right,
00:33:15then we're gonna go with the right hand over the top, okay?
00:33:17Say that again?
00:33:18We go with the right hand over the top, all right?
00:33:20And remember, you drop to the left hand every time, all right?
00:33:23The right hand's right there for you, okay?
00:33:26All right?
00:33:27Now, if you feign him, he pulls up,
00:33:29go with the overhand right right away, all right?
00:33:32Put those combinations together for me, okay, son?
00:33:35All right?
00:33:37Deep breath.
00:33:38Yeah, very good.
00:33:40Very good.
00:33:41As you pull the right hand, give me that left hook, baby.
00:33:45Very good, man.
00:33:46Freddie Roach swore to us yesterday
00:33:48that John Pascal showed up at the door
00:33:51of the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood,
00:33:53and he said,
00:33:54of course I knew who he was,
00:33:56but I wanted him to go through the exercise
00:33:58of introducing himself to me
00:34:00and telling me who he was.
00:34:02I wanted to hear how he would say it.
00:34:04And then over a period of time,
00:34:06Freddie says that he tried to discourage Pascal
00:34:09from wanting to work with him
00:34:10because he himself felt like he needed back surgery.
00:34:13And there's another slip.
00:34:14A year ago, when Kovalev slipped in the fight with Pascal,
00:34:18he got up and scored the technical knockout.
00:34:21But the relationship between Roach and Pascal
00:34:26is an early work in progress.
00:34:28And there's a tackle by Pascal.
00:34:34You all right?
00:34:35We'll see some of that in the Super Bowl next Sunday.
00:34:37I'll hold him around the head, okay?
00:34:38Yeah, well, right now,
00:34:39it's a situation towards Seminole.
00:34:41You see where Pascal is underneath
00:34:43and, you know, Kovalev is on top.
00:34:45I mean, it's a lot of slipping going on in the ring
00:34:47because of the logos,
00:34:48but, you know, I want to talk about the training.
00:34:51And I don't think that Freddie Roach had enough time
00:34:57to be able to give him 100%
00:34:59what Freddie Roach knows
00:35:01as far as his experience and his training.
00:35:04Well, one thing he wanted Pascal to do
00:35:06was to work more behind the jab.
00:35:07He said he's got a very good jab.
00:35:09He doesn't use it enough.
00:35:10And I do see Pascal making efforts
00:35:13to throw the jab tonight.
00:35:14Well, like you said earlier, Jim,
00:35:16I was in there both with both guys,
00:35:17and he has a really good jab when he used it.
00:35:19But he looks to throw the big bomb.
00:35:21He looks to throw the big left hand
00:35:23or the big right hand.
00:35:24Kovalev is really beating him up this round.
00:35:26Yeah, he's starting to torture him
00:35:28with hard power shots on the inside.
00:35:30When Pascal lands a big shot against Kovalev
00:35:33and Kovalev responds,
00:35:34there's a look of shock on Pascal's face,
00:35:36like, wow, I thought I hit him a good shot.
00:35:38He came right back.
00:35:40And where did the power come from?
00:35:42I think it's more Max's,
00:35:44wow, what was that I got hit with?
00:35:46Right.
00:35:47You know what I mean?
00:35:48It's a shock that he recognized
00:35:50that he don't want to continue to get hit like that,
00:35:52but he really can't get away from Kovalev.
00:35:55Kovalev's movement, his feet,
00:35:57he's cutting the ring off the proper way.
00:35:59He's doing everything that a veteran fighter
00:36:01at this stage would do.
00:36:04Good left hook by Pascal.
00:36:09Kovalev jabbing to the body again.
00:36:13See, Pascal's problem,
00:36:14even when I fought him,
00:36:15he's trying to throw every punch
00:36:17with home run on it.
00:36:19You know, Max, he needs to set it up
00:36:21with a jab softly enough
00:36:23where he got the momentum to throw the big punches
00:36:26after he set it up with a jab
00:36:28or a straight right hand and then a left hook,
00:36:30but he has to come in soft
00:36:32and then end it with some meaningful punches
00:36:34to make a statement.
00:36:36Hard left hook to the body by Kovalev.
00:36:38That's the kind of punch that hurts a fighter.
00:36:40You see Pascal beginning to back away from that one.
00:36:46Kovalev doing a good job
00:36:47blocking body shots with his arms there.
00:36:49Got caught with a left hook, though.
00:36:51Pascal did some very good work to the body
00:36:53with both hands as Kovalev was teeing off.
00:36:57And there is Sergey Kovalev's lover
00:36:59holding onto his WBC belt
00:37:02and watching her son fight professionally
00:37:05for the very first time.
00:37:07Her husband, his father,
00:37:09is in a hospital in Russia
00:37:11waiting to see if he will have to have a leg removed
00:37:14as the result of diabetes symptoms.
00:37:16Just move that head for me.
00:37:18He's trying to counter you.
00:37:19After you punch, roll for me.
00:37:26The work is good.
00:37:27Just don't get careless.
00:37:28Move that head for me when you're finished.
00:37:30Keep working behind that jab.
00:37:31Bang! Bang! Bang!
00:37:33Give me that hook.
00:37:35Your work.
00:37:41Both guys...
00:37:43Yeah, both guys was in a way to get hit with a counter,
00:37:47and you can see when right hands go right down the pipe
00:37:50when you stand in front of a guy.
00:37:59Round 4 of a scheduled 12.
00:38:02Sergey Kovalev against John Pascal,
00:38:04Harold Lederman.
00:38:05How do you have it scored, 2-3?
00:38:07I'm kidding, Jim.
00:38:08I've got it 30-27, 3-0, Sergey Kovalev.
00:38:13Jim, about the beard.
00:38:15If that beard can cushion a punch
00:38:17or if the beard can scratch the opponent,
00:38:19it's illegal.
00:38:20Now, at the weigh-in yesterday,
00:38:22I went to the gym,
00:38:23and I said,
00:38:25Now, at the weigh-in yesterday,
00:38:27I went to the promoter, Kathy Duva,
00:38:29and I said,
00:38:30Kathy, the beard is illegal,
00:38:32and I gave her the reasons why.
00:38:34She went to the Montreal Commissioner.
00:38:36He said he would make Pascal shave,
00:38:39and obviously, he didn't do it.
00:38:413-0, Kovalev.
00:38:44Now, Pascal's showing a pretty good beard tonight, anyway.
00:38:48Taking some big shots from Kovalev,
00:38:50and he stays throwing back.
00:38:53A lot of those punches is high up on the head.
00:38:55I think that, you know, it would show more effect
00:38:58if Sergey now saw dropping that right hand
00:39:01a little further down
00:39:03than the top of the head,
00:39:04because Pascal seemed to be trying to get
00:39:07a little bit more of an advantage.
00:39:10But the opportunity is there,
00:39:11because he leans in, he comes forward,
00:39:13and he swings one or two punches,
00:39:14and hopefully, he'll try to hit something.
00:39:16Pascal, that is.
00:39:24Kovalev has not yet staggered Pascal.
00:39:27In the third round of last year's fight,
00:39:30he had a little bit more of an advantage,
00:39:32but he's got a little bit more of an advantage
00:39:34in the third round.
00:39:36In the third round of last year's fight,
00:39:39he created a knockdown.
00:39:41Pascal actually was draped over the ropes
00:39:43and didn't go all the way down,
00:39:44but the ropes held him up,
00:39:46and he's the first official knockdown
00:39:47of John Pascal's entire career.
00:39:49So, as Max says, he has a quality chin.
00:39:53Well, he has a quality chin, Jim,
00:39:54but he also, I think he was rocked earlier
00:39:56a couple of times.
00:39:57Like, you know, nothing serious,
00:39:59but he got, you know, the attention.
00:40:02The attention from those right hands
00:40:04that got hit with another right hand.
00:40:07John Pascal is not throwing back in this round, Bernard.
00:40:10Why is that?
00:40:11Well, one reason, fatigue,
00:40:12and you see his legs,
00:40:13he's starting to do a little herpy jerking with his legs,
00:40:16and to me, I think he might be a little winded,
00:40:18but he's getting hit with shots.
00:40:21Right hand, left hook, right hand,
00:40:22and eventually, that wears you down.
00:40:24He just got hit with a straight left hand to the body,
00:40:27and I think that now he's just being tortured.
00:40:30Pascal's offense has gone to sleep, as you can see.
00:40:33And it's been a little bit of a bumpy box,
00:40:34counting him landing two punches so far
00:40:37in the first 2 1⁄2 minutes of this 3-minute round.
00:40:44Sergey looked definitely the fresher of the two men,
00:40:47and Pascal seemed now trying to find a way
00:40:50to get one big shot in, and you know what?
00:40:52It's not wise to do that with a guy like Sergey.
00:40:55It's only round 4, Bernard.
00:40:57Does this mean that the seemingly lethargic
00:41:01and not terribly lively Jean Pascal
00:41:06who fought Uniesco Gonzalez is the same Pascal
00:41:09we're going to see all the time now?
00:41:11That would be disturbing.
00:41:12All right, February 27, Boxing After Dark
00:41:14returns with a doubleheader from the theater
00:41:16at Madison Square Garden.
00:41:17First, rising Puerto Rican prospect Felix Verdejo
00:41:20faces William Silva.
00:41:21Then 140-pound champ Terence Crawford
00:41:24makes his New York City debut against Hank Lundy.
00:41:27New York, it's a long way from Omaha.
00:41:29Then looking ahead to April 9,
00:41:30it's the just-announced third fight
00:41:32between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradwick,
00:41:34only on HBO Pay-Per-View,
00:41:36and you won't want to miss it.
00:41:39Right hand, left hook.
00:41:41Double jab, right hand, left hook, okay?
00:41:44All right, but you cannot wait for him.
00:41:46All right?
00:41:47Don't let him in first.
00:41:49You're faster. Use your speed, okay?
00:41:52Come on, use your speed.
00:41:55Very smart, baby.
00:41:57Average per round, CompuBox numbers,
00:42:00at this point in the fight, through four rounds,
00:42:02Kovalev is averaging 21 punches landed
00:42:05out of 56 thrown in every round.
00:42:07That's very representative of his game.
00:42:10Pascal is landing 6 out of 20,
00:42:13throwing even fewer than is normally the case,
00:42:16and he's not a fast-paced fighter,
00:42:18landing at a low connect rate,
00:42:20and this is not the Jean Pascal
00:42:22that Freddie Roach wanted to see in the ring,
00:42:24the kind of guy who would have a chance to win the fight.
00:42:26He's gonna have to wake up and do better
00:42:28than he's done to this point.
00:42:30It's already obvious that if Pascal wants to win,
00:42:33since he's losing every round...
00:42:35Oh.
00:42:37He's gonna have to turn around the fight
00:42:40with a big shot of his own,
00:42:42catching Kovalev coming in.
00:42:44Kovalev is clinically in command here,
00:42:47and at this point,
00:42:49the outcome of the fight is just a matter of time,
00:42:51unless Pascal can find a way to change it.
00:42:54It's a matter of time right now,
00:42:56because I think Pascal now realized
00:42:58that this guy's getting stronger,
00:43:00and he's just popping him with that straight right hand,
00:43:02and you know what?
00:43:04That will probably be the one to end the fight,
00:43:06because he's getting lined up
00:43:08with some great, sharp shots down the pipe.
00:43:10The right hand.
00:43:15And I think we may be watching
00:43:18And I think we may be watching
00:43:20Jean Pascal getting old all at once,
00:43:23as Michael Griffin watches
00:43:25and chooses whether to stop the fight.
00:43:29We're only in the fifth round,
00:43:31and Pascal is not throwing back
00:43:34against all of this heavy thunder
00:43:36that Sergey Kovalev is trying to bring.
00:43:38Because, hey, you know,
00:43:40one thing is, he's not throwing back,
00:43:42and, you know what, that's the only chance he's gonna have,
00:43:44but he's so hurt, I think he's so out of it,
00:43:46that he's in survival mode now.
00:43:48He's in a survival mode, and right now,
00:43:50he should be watched over real carefully,
00:43:52and I think the referee will jump in there
00:43:54with four or five more punches that Sergey will throw.
00:44:04I believe, Jim, if Sergey really wanna end his fight,
00:44:07that he can end it, but I'm going back early on
00:44:10with the jab,
00:44:12the statement that he wants to make.
00:44:14I think that's what he's doing, Pascal,
00:44:16and I think that's what he's doing right now
00:44:18is punishing John Pascal.
00:44:20So, just as Muhammad Ali once punished Floyd Patterson
00:44:24for things he didn't like that Patterson had said about him,
00:44:28Kovalev is punishing John Pascal
00:44:30for having called him a racist,
00:44:32among other things, before the fight.
00:44:34True.
00:44:36Pascal's nose look may be broken to you, Bernard.
00:44:39Well, a lot of things might be broken under that beard,
00:44:42but I'll tell you, I'll tell you,
00:44:44Pascal need to be looked over.
00:44:46They need to look at this real carefully
00:44:48once Sergey starts throwing punches
00:44:50because he seriously can be hurt,
00:44:52and, you know, we don't wanna see that,
00:44:54but this is the nature of the game.
00:44:56He just got hit with a straight right hand,
00:44:58and I believe the referee gonna stop this fight soon.
00:45:00Hasn't landed a power punch in the round,
00:45:02and what a difficult situation for Freddie Roach.
00:45:04Max Kellerman training a fighter for the very first time
00:45:06and perhaps having to throw in the towel.
00:45:08That's an extremely difficult situation for Freddie.
00:45:11This is such a one-sided beating
00:45:13of a fight in which one fighter
00:45:15knocked his guy out already.
00:45:17Maybe that makes it a little easier.
00:45:19John, you can't keep taking this kind of fucking punishment.
00:45:22Okay. You okay?
00:45:24All right, listen to me.
00:45:26If you don't go out there this round
00:45:28and show me that you can win this fight,
00:45:30I'm gonna have to stop it.
00:45:32Okay? All right?
00:45:34Are you all right?
00:45:36You out there? Huh?
00:45:38All right? You wanna go?
00:45:42Okay, now, here.
00:45:44If you don't show me that you can win this fight...
00:45:48James Pascal's got hit with a straight right hand,
00:45:50but now he's so far back and leaning back,
00:45:53he's going to hit with a double right hand.
00:45:55What he should have done is try to hold and protect himself,
00:45:57because right now, he can't even protect himself.
00:46:00Yeah.
00:46:01And here's the response of Kovalev's mother.
00:46:03Celebration as she watches her son,
00:46:06who is not in danger,
00:46:08bringing punishment against Pascal.
00:46:10And here's Pascal's mother at exactly the same moment...
00:46:15having to deal with the frustration
00:46:17of watching her son getting beaten up.
00:46:21Round 6 of a scheduled 12.
00:46:25You see, Max, Kovalev has got his shoulders hunched up.
00:46:29He's waiting to fill some contact with Pascal,
00:46:33and Pascal's not trying to throw no punches,
00:46:35because he's still recovering from the last round.
00:46:37And that's why I know that he's not really trying
00:46:39to end this fight right away, or at least right now.
00:46:43All the famous fighters,
00:46:45all the famous fighters,
00:46:47all the famous fighters,
00:46:49all the famous fighters,
00:46:51all the famous fighters,
00:46:53all the things that Pascal is trying to get away from,
00:46:56ducking his head, closing his eyes,
00:46:58and just winging a big shot.
00:47:00Maybe that's not the worst idea right now.
00:47:03Catching Kovalev with something hard is his only chance.
00:47:08Only if he has that energy to do that.
00:47:10Right now, you know, he might regain it later on,
00:47:13but I think he took such a beating in the last round,
00:47:15I think he's right now just trying to pick his spots,
00:47:18and I think that will be something
00:47:19that he will not want to do
00:47:21as he can't hit with the right hand just now.
00:47:23Yeah, as he's waiting to pick, he's getting picked.
00:47:26I mean, Kovalev is the guy picking his shots,
00:47:28and these are big shots, accurate shots.
00:47:31If I was Gene Pascal or you've been in the ring,
00:47:33you don't want to get hit like this.
00:47:35You want to grab, you want to stay close,
00:47:36you want to do all you can
00:47:38not to get hit with his power shots,
00:47:39and maybe you get lucky.
00:47:41Hey, maybe, maybe, maybe...
00:47:43Kovalev hurts his hand hitting your head so much,
00:47:46but it's something you have to come up with
00:47:48some kind of strategy other than...
00:47:50It sounded like in the corner,
00:47:51Freddie gave him one more round.
00:47:53Yeah, he spoke.
00:47:54He said, look, I don't want to get you hurt,
00:47:56and, you know, Freddie know.
00:47:57Freddie know what he sees in the last two rounds.
00:47:59This is the second round of that.
00:48:01Freddie said, you have to show me something in this round,
00:48:04or else I will have to stop the fight.
00:48:06We've already discussed the personality challenge of that,
00:48:09given that this is the first fight
00:48:11in which Freddie Roche has ever handled
00:48:13Gene Pascal in the corner.
00:48:15And if you're wondering why Kovalev doesn't just sell out
00:48:19and throw everything from the kitchen sink
00:48:22to try to end the fight,
00:48:23remember that he's fighting against a guy
00:48:25who throws wild, big, hard counter shots
00:48:28and who landed some of them
00:48:29in the fight against him last year.
00:48:31So he doesn't want to catch one fight-changing shot
00:48:35from Pascal.
00:48:37He's going to stick with what he's doing
00:48:39and pile up the punishment.
00:48:40Pascal is not even in a position to protect himself.
00:48:42He got hit with a stiff jab, the second one just now,
00:48:45and right now he's just waiting in a way
00:48:46to get hit with a good shot.
00:48:48I see this fight being stopped.
00:48:50Sergey backs off him, backs off him,
00:48:53and that's a clear, you know, reason why I said earlier
00:48:58that he's not trying to end this fight.
00:49:00Yeah, to let him out of the corner
00:49:02after having him there a sitting duck
00:49:05feels like Sergey wants to extend the punishment.
00:49:09He said he wanted to punish him.
00:49:12We're about to reach the halfway point of the fight,
00:49:14and if Pascal wants to have something left
00:49:17with which to fight again in the future,
00:49:20he has to consider stepping out of it.
00:49:23Well, we'll see if Freddie makes that decision
00:49:25for him right now.
00:49:26John, you're getting beat up too much.
00:49:28I'm going to stop the fight.
00:49:29One more.
00:49:30No.
00:49:31No, no, no.
00:49:32John.
00:49:33One more, one more.
00:49:34No.
00:49:35Let me try one more.
00:49:36John.
00:49:37Trust me, let me try one more.
00:49:39Let me try one more.
00:49:41You better show your hands.
00:49:42You can't just go to the ropes and lay there.
00:49:44I know.
00:49:45That's why.
00:49:47Okay?
00:49:48All right?
00:49:49If you lay in the ropes,
00:49:50I'm going to tell the ref to stop the fight, okay?
00:49:52All right?
00:49:53You hear me?
00:49:54Now, come on.
00:49:55You better get out there and box like you know how.
00:49:57Yeah.
00:49:58All right?
00:49:59Come on.
00:50:00Just like in the warm-up.
00:50:02Let's go.
00:50:03What happened to that guy?
00:50:04Give me that guy.
00:50:05Box.
00:50:06You want to go in front.
00:50:07Let's go.
00:50:08All right?
00:50:09If not, I'm going to...
00:50:10All right?
00:50:11This is it.
00:50:12All right?
00:50:13All right, come on.
00:50:14Do something.
00:50:15No more taking beating, okay?
00:50:16Please, keep it close, Adam.
00:50:18One more, John, okay?
00:50:20Gabibok's numbers in the last two rounds,
00:50:22Sergey Kovalev has landed 50 punches.
00:50:25John Pascal has landed four.
00:50:27Barring some overwhelmingly dramatic change,
00:50:31there's no logic to allowing Pascal to come out
00:50:33to fight this round,
00:50:34but you heard how insistent he was
00:50:37as Freddie Roach told him
00:50:39that he was going to stop the fight.
00:50:40So here we are in the seventh.
00:50:42Harold, how do you have it through six?
00:50:44I've got it to shut out.
00:50:45I've got it 60 to 53.
00:50:47Sergey Kovalev, I mean, he's doing a number on him.
00:50:50Round 5, I scored 10 to 8 without a knockdown.
00:50:53To tell you the truth,
00:50:54I thought there was a knockdown in the...
00:50:56in round 5 when Pascal's gloves
00:50:58touched the canvas when he leaned over,
00:51:00but Michael Griffiths just didn't call it a knockdown again.
00:51:03But there's it, mate.
00:51:04Sergey Kovalev winning this fight.
00:51:06Very, very big.
00:51:07The left jab and the hard right hand doing the damage.
00:51:09I think he's going to stop him in this round.
00:51:11Six to nothing, Kovalev.
00:51:13The interesting thing
00:51:14that happened in the corner just then
00:51:16is Freddie told Pascal,
00:51:18I'm going to tell the ref
00:51:19the next time you're on the ropes to stop it,
00:51:21and then Freddie instructed the ref,
00:51:23please keep an eye on him.
00:51:25If he goes to the ropes and he gets hit,
00:51:27stop the fight.
00:51:28Don't see that every day.
00:51:34Yes.
00:51:35And that's one of the reasons
00:51:36that Freddie's been the seven-time
00:51:38trainer of the year
00:51:40in the eyes of the United States Boxing Writers Association,
00:51:43because he is appreciated for his humanity
00:51:47as well as for his skill in training fighters.
00:51:51You know, and Freddie gave him an opportunity
00:51:54to go out there and not be on the ropes.
00:51:56As Max said, he, you know,
00:51:58Freddie said, don't be on the ropes,
00:51:59so he told the referee,
00:52:00if he's on the ropes, stop it.
00:52:01I mean, that's an incentive
00:52:03that you better do something this round,
00:52:04or I'm going to stop the fight,
00:52:06or the referee should stop it.
00:52:07Well, he is using his legs
00:52:09in the center of the ring
00:52:10and keeping his back off the ropes in this round,
00:52:12and it's forced him to be a little bit more competitive
00:52:15and throw a few more punches.
00:52:17But maybe this will be enough for him
00:52:19to go back to the corner and say,
00:52:20see, I told you I could do better.
00:52:22Well, he made an impassioned plea to Freddie.
00:52:25He said, trust me, I need one more round.
00:52:28And Freddie gave him the benefit of the doubt,
00:52:30which is understandable.
00:52:31Pascal sold it,
00:52:33and he's fighting strategically
00:52:35more along the lines of what they want,
00:52:37and he's taking at least as much punishment
00:52:40with hard, punishing shots in the middle of the ring.
00:52:42But I think that has a lot to do, Max, too,
00:52:44with Sergey not really putting the pressure on him.
00:52:46He's pop-shotting him one straight right into the body,
00:52:49and that hurts, trust me.
00:52:50He's banging him to the body one shot at a time
00:52:52just to buy time for him to do what he want to do later.
00:52:55And I agree with you, Max.
00:52:56I think there's a very decent chance
00:52:58that Pascal's nose is broken
00:53:01and has been since one of the early rounds.
00:53:07And in the last fight,
00:53:09Kovalev stopped Najib Mohammadi
00:53:11in the third round,
00:53:12and Mohammadi got a look of stricken pain on his face
00:53:16when it appeared that Kovalev had broken his nose.
00:53:18But Pascal got the heart of the champion.
00:53:20He's been in there with Kovalev twice now,
00:53:22and he continues to fight through excruciating punishment.
00:53:25And now there's a commissioned doctor,
00:53:28a Canadian commissioned doctor,
00:53:30who is coming up to the ropes
00:53:33in Pascal's corner.
00:53:36And it looked as though his intention
00:53:38was going to be to stop the fight,
00:53:39but he's just looking.
00:53:44Now Freddie's going to stop him.
00:53:46That's the end of that.
00:54:01So for the second year in a row,
00:54:04Sergey Kovalev has a technical knockout victory
00:54:07over Jean Pascal,
00:54:09and this time, if anything, he did more damage.
00:54:12I mean, Freddie stopped the fight
00:54:15while Pascal still had his face
00:54:18because Kovalev was taking it off.
00:54:21He's a good, well,
00:54:22Freddie Roach is, like I said, a veteran trainer.
00:54:24He's seen that fight. He didn't have the shot.
00:54:27Did the right thing.
00:54:28And the discouraged Jean Pascal
00:54:31now must accept another defeat.
00:54:36And frankly, most ringsiders in Las Vegas
00:54:39this past summer didn't see him as the winner
00:54:42against Ionescu Gonzalez.
00:54:44If anybody that night had earned the right
00:54:46to face Kovalev tonight,
00:54:48it was Gonzalez and not Pascal.
00:54:50But Jim, you know what? No quitting Pascal.
00:54:52It's a championship heart.
00:54:53There's a reason he was the light heavyweight champion
00:54:55of the world once upon a time.
00:54:56Absolutely right.
00:54:57He has a lot of self-belief.
00:54:59Too much for his own health
00:55:02against Sergey Kovalev.
00:55:03Well, too much against a guy like The Crusher
00:55:05that comes, you know, to take care of his business.
00:55:07So once again, how special is The Crusher?
00:55:09Very, very special in this weight division
00:55:11at this time in boxing.
00:55:12I mean, you know, I just wish that people
00:55:15would really embrace him a lot more, Jim,
00:55:16to understand that this guy has everything
00:55:18that it takes to really carry light heavy division
00:55:22to a division of old to new where we're at now.
00:55:25He's very special.
00:55:26Jim, he's very special.
00:55:27Well, let's go to Michael Buffer
00:55:28for the official particulars on the TKO.
00:55:36Ladies and gentlemen, mesdames et messieurs,
00:55:38the end comes at the very end of round number seven.
00:55:42The challenger's corner tells the referee
00:55:45he's unable to continue the winner by TKO victory,
00:55:50and still the undefeated champion
00:55:54of the undefeated light heavyweight
00:55:58champion of the world,
00:56:01Sergei...
00:56:03Khrushchev...
00:56:06Kovalev!
00:56:21Still unbeaten.
00:56:23Still the number-one light heavyweight in the world.
00:56:26Still hoping for bigger fights in the future.
00:56:29Very happy that Andre Ward was here
00:56:31to watch him at ringside tonight,
00:56:33hoping that that fight is going to take place
00:56:35somewhere down the road.
00:56:37Sergei Kovalev, the Khrushchev.
00:56:40Final CompuBox numbers will show extreme dominance.
00:56:45Kovalev landing 135 more total punches,
00:56:50Kovalev landing 304 more punches,
00:56:53landing throughout the fight at a 40% connect rate.
00:56:56And when a guy with the kind of power Kovalev has
00:56:59is landing 40% of his punches,
00:57:01you are getting hurt.
00:57:02You are getting gradually broken up in the ring,
00:57:05and that's exactly the reason why Freddie Roach
00:57:07ultimately was making the point to his brand-new fighter,
00:57:10I can't let this continue.
00:57:13CompuBox numbers on the punch zone graphic
00:57:16will show you where these punches landed,
00:57:18and you'll see there that the scant few punches
00:57:21that Pascal landed were assorted all around
00:57:25on Kovalev's body, but Kovalev landing 47 body shots,
00:57:3033 of them with the right hand to the body,
00:57:34and 118 punches upstairs to the head,
00:57:38about 109 of them around the right or the left side
00:57:43or the center of the head.
00:57:45A lot of right hands, a lot of jabs.
00:57:47Some of those body punches were jabs as well.
00:57:50Let's go to Max Kellerman,
00:57:51standing by in the ring with the Crusher.
00:57:53Congratulations, Sergey Kovalev,
00:57:56on another devastating knockout win.
00:57:59I say this to you after every one of your fights nowadays.
00:58:03You like rematches?
00:58:06Uh, no, I don't like rematch,
00:58:08but this was a personal fight
00:58:11because Pascal is a special person.
00:58:16How is he a special person?
00:58:19I mean that he's not polite with anybody around him
00:58:25and don't respect fighters.
00:58:28Everybody don't respect.
00:58:30Believe me, until I'm in Montreal,
00:58:34everybody said me, like, kick his ass.
00:58:37It did seem to us that you made good on your promise
00:58:41before the fight to punish him during the fight
00:58:44for some of the things he said.
00:58:46You would have him cornered,
00:58:47and then you would let him out of the corner
00:58:49to extend the fight.
00:58:50Is that, in fact, what you were doing?
00:58:52Were you punishing him intentionally
00:58:54and extending the fight?
00:58:55Yes, I would fight more rounds
00:58:58and make him more pain.
00:59:02Punish him more.
00:59:04He stop the...
00:59:06Oh, stop fight before the 8th round.
00:59:10He lost the bet, 50,000.
00:59:14So even now, after that beating,
00:59:18you still have a bad feeling about your opponent.
00:59:21Yes, I don't respect him at all, and never.
00:59:25Till he not excuse in front of me.
00:59:29When you say things like that,
00:59:31like you punished him intentionally,
00:59:35do you think that endears you to boxing fans?
00:59:39Do you think it turns some fans off?
00:59:41How do you think the public receives that?
00:59:44You know, I punished not good person.
00:59:50And everybody understand who is who.
00:59:53And that's it, not any comments.
00:59:57Andre Ward spoke to us tonight,
01:00:00said that a fight with you is not if, but when.
01:00:05What are your thoughts about fighting Andre Ward
01:00:09either at the end of this year or soon?
01:00:14Yeah, I'm very happy if this fight will happen.
01:00:17And just take your time.
01:00:21In the meantime, they keep lining up opponents for you
01:00:25and you keep knocking them out.
01:00:27Between now and Andre Ward,
01:00:30is there anyone you're interested in getting in the ring with?
01:00:35Sure, I want to unify all four titles.
01:00:39I would like to fight Adonis Chikinson.
01:00:44Adonis Chikinson, who is also here ringside.
01:00:51Oh, yeah? Okay.
01:00:54Yeah.
01:00:56That's me. This is the biggest tough man.
01:00:58This is me. I'm the champ.
01:01:01I'm the real champ.
01:01:03Yeah.
01:01:13All right, Adonis Stevenson, the lineal champion,
01:01:17is in the ring,
01:01:20ostensibly trying to get at Sergey Kovalev,
01:01:24the consensus light heavyweight champion of the world.
01:01:29Jean Pascal entered the ring moments ago
01:01:33to say something to congratulate Sergey
01:01:37and didn't get a chance.
01:01:39Jean, is there something you'd like to say?
01:01:45I just want to say thank you to all my fans
01:01:48who came out to support me.
01:01:50Thank you very much. I love you guys.
01:01:53Kovalev did a better job tonight.
01:01:55He's a great champion.
01:01:57And I will be back. Don't worry, guys.
01:01:59I love you. Thank you very much.
01:02:01Thank you, Jean.
01:02:04Jim.
01:02:06All right, thanks very much, Max Kellerman.
01:02:08Now, immediately, let me just quickly say,
01:02:10excuse me, Bernard, that Adonis Stevenson
01:02:12would have to cross a political dividing line
01:02:15in order to fight Sergey Kovalev
01:02:17as long as Kovalev has the contract
01:02:19he currently has with this network.
01:02:21And Stevenson, within the past few weeks,
01:02:23seems to have made clear
01:02:24that he's still not ready to cross that line
01:02:26and, therefore, not really willing
01:02:28to sign a contract to fight Sergey Kovalev.
01:02:30Andre Ward's a different story, Bernard Hopkins.
01:02:32He seemed to say in our interview with him
01:02:34that there is, in fact, a contract
01:02:36and that, as Max Kellerman said there,
01:02:38that fight, Kovalev versus Ward,
01:02:40is a when-not-if situation.
01:02:42He's the one who's got the style
01:02:44to give him trouble, right?
01:02:46Yes. Andre Ward has a style to give him trouble.
01:02:48And also, that is, like Jim mentioned earlier,
01:02:50that is the realistic fight that's gonna happen.
01:02:52Stevenson, it was all show.
01:02:54But let me tell you, that fight I want to see,
01:02:56Kovalev and Andre Ward,
01:02:58that's the fight, and that division
01:03:00is a super fight of that division.
01:03:02Because Ward's defensive skills,
01:03:04his overall athletic talent,
01:03:06his general experience, and the fact
01:03:08that he hasn't lost a fight since he's 12 years old
01:03:10would give him the confidence to go in
01:03:12and fight against Kovalev.
01:03:14Absolutely, because, you know, Andre Ward's been in the amateurs.
01:03:16He's seen all the styles, Jim.
01:03:18He knows how to fight guys from Russia or any other place
01:03:20because he has that pedigree from the amateurs.
01:03:22I'm excited and wait to see that fight happen
01:03:242016, 2017.
01:03:26I want it to happen sooner than later.
01:03:28I agree. Thanks very much, Bernard.
01:03:30Max Kellerman, you pointed out
01:03:32what the dangers were before the fight.
01:03:34They didn't materialize during the fight.
01:03:36If anything, Kovalev seems to be getting better.
01:03:38Yeah, and that's one of the reasons
01:03:40it's hard to find interesting fights for him.
01:03:42And it's great that Andre Ward has outgrown
01:03:44the super middleweight division
01:03:46and wants to take on the challenge.
01:03:48Adonis Stevenson, this posturing,
01:03:50notwithstanding, has never really seemed anxious
01:03:52to make a fight with Kovalev,
01:03:54including when he fought on this network,
01:03:56and I used to ask him after winning performances,
01:03:58what about Kovalev?
01:04:00Andre Ward is a special fighter.
01:04:02The question is gonna be, coming in March,
01:04:04is he still that special fighter?
01:04:06Because after a certain amount of time out of the ring,
01:04:08especially against top-flight opposition,
01:04:10sometimes fighters are never the same.
01:04:12And Andre is going to have to be
01:04:14100% in the ring
01:04:16to be able to fight
01:04:18that light heavyweight monster we just saw.
01:04:20All right.
01:04:22So you heard what Max had to say.
01:04:24You heard what Bernard had to say.
01:04:26You heard what Sergei had to say.
01:04:28And you saw Adonis
01:04:30pretending that he had something to say.
01:04:32You all know that Kovalev's run
01:04:34through the light heavyweight division continues,
01:04:36and that most likely,
01:04:38it won't be interrupted
01:04:40until he fights somebody like Kovalev,
01:04:42and that's what we're gonna see.
01:04:44We're gonna see Kovalev
01:04:46until he fights somebody
01:04:48like Andre Ward.
01:04:50Let's hope that it will eventually take place.
01:04:52Thanks for being with us.
01:04:54Let's look ahead to upcoming programming on HBO.
01:04:56A variety of different programs
01:04:58coming your way in the coming months
01:05:00from HBO Sports.
01:05:02From the reality series
01:05:04Tracking the Gonzaga Men's Basketball Team,
01:05:06through Terrence Crawford's New York debut,
01:05:08my show, The Fight Game,
01:05:10and Manny Pacquiao against Timothy Bradley,
01:05:12HBO Sports is your place
01:05:14to invest in sports entertainment.
01:05:16And a reminder that coming up next,
01:05:18stay tuned for real sports
01:05:20and that exclusive interview with newly crowned heavyweight champion
01:05:22Tyson Fury.
01:05:24Now for my broadcast partners,
01:05:26Bernard Hopkins, Max Kellerman, and Harold Edelman.
01:05:28I'm Jim Lampley saying so long,
01:05:30and thanks for watching.
01:05:44You