Montreal's Pascal KO's Nievas in hometown
Last Updated: Saturday, April 4, 2009 | 6:19 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Jean Pascal knocked out Pablo Nievas in the fifth round at the Montreal Casino on Saturday afternoon and is looking forward to a shot at WBC light heavyweight champion and fellow Montrealer Adrian Diaconu.
Pascal's promoter, Yvon Michel, said talks have begun with rival promotion company InterBox for a Pascal-Diaconu showdown, likely at the Bell Centre in June.
"There are still a lot of details to settle," said Michel. "We will talk to Jean and InterBox will talk to Diaconu and then we'll see."
Diaconu is to fight an eight-round tune-up bout Saturday at the Bell Centre on the undercard of the Kendall Holt-Timothy Bradley light-welterweight unification fight.
It would be the first time the two local promoters worked together and put some of their star fighters against one another since Michel split from InterBox to form his own company in 2004. At stake will be the title and bragging rights between the bitter rivals.
"Both companies have established that they are not fly-by-night," said Michel. "We're here for the long term.
"We both have good fighters. We both have a certain maturity now. We'll still be highly competitive. We'll do our best to beat them. But in the end, it will be best for boxing in Quebec."
A busy day of boxing — two separate fight cards on the same day — began with Pascal (22-1) taking the minor WBO Inter-continental super-middleweight title with a convincing victory over Nievas (22-6-1), a rangy Argentine who has lost four of nine bouts since his failed attempt to win the WBA belt from Australia's Anthony Mundine in 2007.
It was Pascal's first fight since his hard-fought loss by unanimous decision in a WBC 168-pound title bout to Carl Froch in Nottingham, England, on Dec. 6.
The quick and athletic Pascal cleanly took the first three rounds, rocking Nievas with a big left in the second, but Nievas landed a solid shot of his own in the fourth.
Early in the fifth, Nievas had Pascal against the ropes, landing wide body shots, when the 26-year-old Haiti native jolted him with an uppercut and followed with two left hooks that put Nievas on the canvas to be counted out.
"I feel relieved," said Pascal. "It's bizarre to say, but I was more stressed out over this one than for my world title fight.
"It's been so long since I fought in Montreal [since December 2007] that I wanted to put on a show for the fans."
Pascal said he would have no trouble moving up to the 175-pound division to take on Diaconu.
"My first choice would be a rematch with Froch because he beat me, but I'll talk to Yvon Michel and we'll see," he said. "A chance at a world title doesn't come up every day.
"And to fight for a title against another guy from Quebec would be historic."
