Jean Pascal has come pretty close to matching Bernard Hopkins word-for-trash-talking-word over the past three months, which is no small feat when you consider that Terrell Owens frequently seems demure in comparison to the grizzled Philadelphia fighter.
But when Pascal defends his World Boxing Council light heavyweight title against the 46-year-old Hopkins on Saturday before a packed house at the Bell Centre in Montreal, the talking will matter little.
Oh, there?s been the usual amateur psychoanalysis conducted about the verbal histrionics between the two, attempting to determine who?s into whose head. Pascal, who wilted in the second half of the first meeting between the two on Dec. 18 in Quebec City and had to settle for an unsatisfying majority draw to keep his title, has seemed to take an oddly personal stake in one-upping Hopkins verbally.
He seemed to insinuate that Hopkins was using performance-enhancing drugs at one news conference that got so out of hand the fighters had to be physically separated from each other. On Wednesday, at a news conference in Montreal in which Hopkins? only words were, ?Enjoy the fight,? Pascal followed him to the dais and said, ?Three days left. Enjoy the fight.?
Score the trash-talk wars, like the first fight, a majority draw.
But the real concern that Pascal has to have is whether he?ll get a response from his body on Saturday when he steps on the accelerator in the second half of the fight.
In each of his last two outings, against Hopkins and on Aug. 14 in a winning effort against Chad Dawson, Pascal bolted from the starting gate and then had to hang on for dear life at the end.
Against Hopkins, he scored a knockdown in the first and another in the third and swept the first four rounds. But by the time the bell rang to sound the start of the 12th round, Pascal looked like a sprinter struggling to find the oxygen to complete the final lap in the 1,500 meters.
You can bet that Hopkins noticed that and has come up with a plan to take advantage. The wily Hopkins may be a better observer than he is a fighter. He misses very little and while he undoubtedly expects Pascal to come out hard early again, he has to be crafting a plan that will give him a way to slow the tempo and turn it into a long, hard battle.
If it becomes a test of wills, the game swings decidedly in favor of the challenger, who seems like he was born for these moments.
?You?ve seen a lot of fights and you?ve been there watching me for a lot of fights over a very long period of time and I think it?s pretty safe to say that have you never, ever seen me in a fight against anyone, ever, looking the way Pascal did against me in those last couple of rounds,? Hopkins said. ?I mean, come on, in less than a month after that fight, I was going to be 46 years old. This is a young guy, a world champion, a guy in his prime who is 27, 28 years old, and he?s the one having a hard time finishing and this old man is doing it easy. What?s that say to you? He came out hard, but he didn?t have anything left after the fourth or fifth round.?
Hopkins has repeatedly vowed to knock Pascal out, though he hasn?t had a knockout in nearly seven years, when he stopped Oscar De La Hoya with that infamous left to the liver in Las Vegas. Since then, Hopkins has fought 120 rounds over 10 fights without ever coming close to a knockout.
But the more Hopkins has spoken of a knockout, the more Pascal has insisted he?ll finish the job he started in the early rounds last time. After three rounds in December, Pascal was up by five points on all three judges? cards and it seemed virtually impossible for a 45-year-old man to erase that kind of a deficit in nine rounds.
Pascal, though, didn?t have the energy reserves left to do it when Hopkins managed to survive the early onslaught. Pascal promoter Yvon Michel said he never had the sense that Pascal pushed himself in training the first time out, but said such is not the case this time around.
Pascal is wise enough to understand that when fighting Hopkins, it sometimes takes unconventional warfare to succeed. The good thing for him is, he?s not making too much of an issue about his early failures.
Anyone can pop the back off of a watch and dismantle it in about a minute. But it takes a finely trained watchmaker to properly put the pieces back together so that it keeps perfect time once again.
Fighting Hopkins is like trying to piece together a dismantled watch. Pascal seems to understand that it takes patience, steady nerves and endurance.
?It wasn?t harder than I thought because I knew Bernard was still a good fighter,? Pascal said. ?I know when you fight with Hopkins, it?s always complicated. He has a lot of experience. I?m young, but I did some things wrong last time. But with the rematch, I?m going to expect to be me and to show the world that I?m a great fighter, and I?m better than Bernard Hopkins.?
Pascal made his pro debut on Feb. 3, 2005, in Montreal, only 19 days after Hopkins turned 40 years old, winning by second-round knockout. He?s done little but win since, compiling a 26-1-1 record, with only a decision loss to Carl Froch and the majority draw with Hopkins sullying his record.
Hopkins has made much of Pascal?s late-fight fade in December, calling Pascal a four-round fighter. Pascal, of course, in vintage Hopkins style, couldn?t resist responding.
?Bernard Hopkins said that I was a four-round fighter and that is it,? Pascal said. ?So, I?m going to knock him out inside four rounds.?
It would be great for him if he could do that. But in 59 bouts over a 22-year period, no one has been able to accomplish it.
Pascal, the sprinter, may have the style to become the first.
Don?t count on it, though. You get the sneaking suspicion that if Pascal is going to win this one, the sprinter will have to morph into a miler for at least one night.
