Photos: Jean Pascal Putting in Hard Work For Ring Return

Photos by Robert Levesque/Photo Zone Sport

WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal is putting in some hard work and he's looking for a big year-end win. Pascal (30-4-1, 17KOs), 34 years old, was last in the ring back in January, when he was battered over seven rounds in his rematch with Sergey Kovalev.

As BoxingScene.com previously reported a few days ago, Pascal will return to the ring on December 16th at Le Cabaret Amphithéâtre Cogeco in Trois-Rivières, Canada.

According to RDS, Pascal will face 42-year-old veteran Stjepan Bozic (29-11, 19 KOs) at a catch-weight of 180-pounds, with a ten round distance. Bozic has lost four of his last five fights and has not seen action for more than 18 months. Bozic was selected after an opponent from England refused the fight because of the 180-pound weight limit.

Pascal is still very eager to fight and the desire to be champion again is driving him forward. He wants to fight at least three times in 2017.

“It’s not for my ego. It’s not for the money. I love boxing and I love my fans,” Pascal said to the Montreal Gazette. “When I went for groceries people were asking me, ‘when are you coming back?’ Boxing’s a passion for me.

“Honestly, I’m still aiming for the peak of the mountain. To be back on top and to be world champion for the third time. My goal is to rebuild myself, try to become world champion.”

Canadian trainer Stephan Larouche, who took over for Freddie Roach, says he is going to take things very slow with Pascal to rebuild him properly.

“He has experience and has to use it to his advantage,” Larouche said. “He has to fight with his experience, his knowledge, with his strengths. Jean’s very emotional in the ring. He wants to dominate all the time. When it doesn’t go his way, sometimes he gets a little bit upset. He has good timing, eyes and reflexes. But he’s kind of unpredictable.

“One step at a time. He hasn’t fought for 11 months. We’re going back to the fundamentals. Get some wins and then we’ll make some plans. I think he has the potential but, you’ve seen over the weekend how strong it is. The calibre’s pretty high in the light-heavyweight division.”