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Jean Pascal punched his way back into title contention at the right time.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that the International Boxing Federation (IBF) formally ordered a light heavyweight title eliminator between Quebec’s Pascal and London’s Joshua Buatsi on Friday. The two sides will be granted a free negotiation period to work out terms for such a fight to determine the IBF mandatory challenger to lineal and unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev (18-0, 18KOs).
Should the two sides fail to reach a deal, the ordered eliminator would then head to a purse bid hearing. Per IBF rule 9.D (c), Buatsi would be entitled to 60 percent of the winning bid as the higher ranked challenger (currently number three), with the remaining 40 percent to go to Pascal as the number-six ranked contender.
Greg Leon, Pascal’s manager, informed BoxingScene.com of their intentions to move forward the matchup, confirming a breaking news report from Le Journal de Montreal.
“As you know sanctioning bodies often come under a lot of scrutiny for their decisions but the IBF knocked this one out of the park,” Leon told BoxingScene.com. “This is a true fight fans fight, it’s guaranteed action. It’s let’s see what Buatsi is made of vs. somebody at this level. It’s can the old dog teach another young up and comer how to lose.
“After beating the IBF’s previously undefeated number one contender Fanlong Meng on May 20, Jean Pascal earned this fight. He’s earned the right to get back to the belts if he can just get through one more undefeated fighter.”
Buatsi (16-0, 13KOs) is represented by Matchroom Boxing, whose chairman Eddie Hearn has previously indicated an intention for the 2016 Olympic Bronze medalist to next face WBA light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol (20-0, 11KOs). The order from the IBF would prevent Buatsi from entering any other fight without jeopardizing his current ranking with the New Jersey-based sanctioning body. Similarly, Bivol was already ordered to next face WBA mandatory challenger Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez (44-0, 30KOs) as previously reported by BoxingScene.com, though Hearn indicated an intention to seek an exemption to first allow a Bivol-Buatsi fight, which seems unlikely.
Buatsi is coming off a twelve-round, unanimous decision win over Craig Richards on May 21 at The O2 in London. The bout was billed as a WBA semi-final title eliminator, though treated in the aftermath as if Buatsi was next in line for Bivol. The claim was strange, considering that Ramirez established himself as the mandatory challenger with a knockout win over Dominic Boesel in their May 14 final eliminator between the two highest rated WBA contenders.
The 39-year-old Pascal (36-6-1, 20KOs) returned to the title stage following a twelve-round, unanimous decision win over the previously unbeaten Fanlong on May 20 in Plant City, Florida.
Fanlong entered the fight as the number-one contender and with hopes of challenging Beterbiev, who at the time was four weeks out from his eventual second-round knockout of Joe Smith Jr. in their June 18 lineal/WBC/IBF/WBO unification bout in New York City. Pascal ruined those plans, dropping Fanlong in the ninth-round of their ProBox TV main event en route to a competitive but unanimous decision in his first fight following a 28-month layoff.
Pascal hadn’t fought since a 12-round, split decision win over Badou Jack in December 2019, four months after claiming a secondary WBA light heavyweight title in a technical decision win over then-unbeaten Marcus Browne in August 2019. The two were due to meet again last June 6 in Miami Gardens, Florida, only for Pascal to test positive for multiple banned substances through testing contracted by Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA).
The triumphant return puts Pascal within one win of once again challenging for a full title. The Haiti-born, Quebec-based light heavyweight previously served as WBC light heavyweight champion for nearly two years, registering five successful defenses including an August 2010 win over Chad Dawson to gain recognition as the division’s lineal champion. His reign ended in a May 2011 points loss to the now Hall of Fame inducted Bernard Hopkins, the defeat coming five months after their December 2010 draw.
Pascal is 10-4 with one No-Contest since the loss to Hopkins, suffering a pair of knockouts at the hands of then-unbeaten and unified light heavyweight champ Sergey Kovalev and a points loss to Bivol in a failed bid at the WBA title in November 2018. Over that same period have come wins over four unbeaten and ranked contenders along with a twelve-round decision over former IBF titlist Lucian Bute in their April 2014 blockbuster event in Montreal.
Pascal’s team indicated that he has already reached out to Matchroom and is prepared for Pascal to travel to the UK if it means securing a fight with Buatsi.
“I’ve dealt with many promoters the world over , but have yet to work directly with Eddie Hearn,” noted Leon. “It’s something I look forward to, Matchroom is a top tier promoter and the shows they put on are always first class.”
A refusal from either side to move forward with the ordered fight will result in said party being dropped to a ranking outside the top ten and ineligible to advance for at least six months. The same applies should either party fail to honor the terms of a completed purse bid hearing, should it come to that.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox