Bute dismisses Pascal for the time being
There’s no bigger potential Canadian fight right now than Jean Pascal (26-1, 16 KOs) and Lucian Bute (26-0, 21 KOs). On the one hand, you’ve got the guy who just dismantled Chad Dawson and won the prestigious Ring Magazine light heavyweight crown. On the other, there's the undefeated Bute at super-middleweight, the guy everyone knows should have been part of Showtime’s Super Six tournament, but who will nevertheless be fighter to challenge at its conclusion.
So when Pascal called out just about everyone in those two divisions, super-middle and light-heavy, sparks were bound to fly, and fly they did. Within a week Bernard Hopkins has reportedly picked up on a fighting offer, with his promoter Richard Schaefer saying he’ll even take the fight in Montreal. What, then of the others? Dawson has stated he’s entitled to a rematch, which is true. But unfortunately for the time being nobody really cares about Dawson, and he’ll probably have to wait until Pascal puts it on the line again for another big payday.
And Bute? He’d been mysteriously quiet after watching the Pascal fight from ringside. But what he didn’t say just about every other Canadian fight fan did. The record was recently clarified when Fightnews.com sought out his promoter Jean Bedard, who heads InterBox, to get some answers. Bedard said the game plan now was to “keep Lucian at 168.” He continued: “We’ve had several offers to fight against (Tavoris) Cloud and we met with Dawson’s promoters when they were here too. I told them we want to be 168 and that we’ll await the winner of the Super Six as well. It’s the same for Jean Pascal. This is what we’re going to tell Yvon (Michel). It’s a fight that’s going to happen, but not in the short term.”
There you have it folks. If Pascal is going to take on Bute, it’s not going to be anytime soon, and for the simple financial reason that the longer these two guys hold out and advance their brands, the bigger the payday and generated revenue will be when they meet. For everyone. Bedard admitted as much: “there is no big money right now from HBO that I know of and if we wait, it will only be bigger. And in Quebec, people will always want to see this fight.”
But aside from financial gain, Bedard also had some other good reasons for keeping Bute at 168. He expressed the opinion that fighters generally go up in weight for two reasons: because they can’t make weight anymore, or the competition is lacking in their respective class. But for Bute, Bedard said, neither is the case.
“There are more potential good fights for Lucian at 168 right now than at 175. Anyway, this fight will be there [Pascal-Bute], if we’re smart we can do something. Lucian is just beginning to popular in the U.S. and Jean nobody knew him before last Saturday. We have two champions right now and we can do it bigger on a world level. That’s why the timing isn’t here yet on this fight.”
Bute is expected to take on the winner of the Showtime Supersix World Boxing Classic Tournament, who will hold the WBA and WBC super-middleweight titles. He is also slated to defend his IBF title in a mandatory bout against Jesse Brinkley in October.
Pascal’s camp has been in negotiations with Hopkins, and Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer looks to arrange something immediately. The fight would be a big draw for Pascal in Montreal, but what if he loses? A mandatory rematch with Dawson would seem to lack its current zeal.
Right now though Pascal seems to be banking on dismantling the ageing legend, collecting the big bucks and name recognition that taking apart a legend gets, and then building up to a super-fight with Bute.
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