MONTREAL - Jean Pascal's trademark flash and flamboyance took a back seat to courage and maturity in retaining his World Boxing Council light-heavyweight title.
Pascal separated his right shoulder in the third round and twice more over the course of the fight, but he still won a second straight unanimous decision over Adrian Diaconu on Friday night.
His cutman Russ Anber had to pop his shoulder back into place three times in his corner, the final time between the 10th and 11th rounds, but Pascal still came out punching over the final two rounds to secure the win.
"I have a lot of guts," said Pascal, with both his shoulders in so much ice he looked more like a football player than a boxer. "I knew it already, but now I really know it."
Pascal (23-1-0) won decisively on each of the judges' scorecards in what appeared to be a much closer bout. Richard Flaherty of Connecticut gave it to Pascal 118-110, while both New York's Julie Lederman and Montreal's Claude Paquette scored it 117-111. The Canadian Press scored the fight a 114-114 draw.
The WBC wants Pascal to fight American Chad Dawson (29-0-0) within the next 120 days in a mandatory title defence, but promoter Yvon Michel would not commit to that, especially considering the state of Pascal's shoulder.
"Jean Pascal is the greatest light heavyweight in the world," Michel said. "There's no Chad Dawson, there's no Tavoris Cloud. No one in the world is better than Jean Pascal."
Pascal, of nearby Laval, Que., defeated the adopted Montrealer Diaconu (26-2-0) by unanimous decision on June 19 to take the WBC title from him.
Diaconu -- a native of Romania who has fought out of Montreal his entire professional career -- apologized to his fans after the fight, but was still convinced he did enough to win.
"My feeling is I won eight rounds," he said. "In my soul I did not lose this fight. Something smells fishy."
Diaconu, 30, was fighting for the first time since his first loss to Pascal and only the third time since defeating Chris Henry on April 19, 2008 to win the WBC title.
The revenge match between two local fighters drew a crowd of 8,802 fans to the Bell Centre, about 5,000 fewer than the first fight last summer. Local fighter Sebastien Gauthier suggested that was because of Pascal's cocky persona, that Quebecers prefer a humble champion to a flamboyant one.
"All winners, anyone who has success, they all have one thing in common and that's self-confidence," Pascal said. "Some prefer to keep that confidence to themselves, but I scream it out loud because it motivates me. I know that if ever I fail everyone's going to throw it in my face, so it motivates me not to fail."
Pascal, 27, used his lightning quick hands to land repeated combinations, but in between those Diaconu was consistently scoring with strong jabs.
As the fight wore on, it appeared Pascal was saving his energy to come at Diaconu with furious flurries towards the end of the round, perhaps influencing the judges scores.
"We were expecting him to box for about 20 or 30 seconds a round, and that's what he did," said Diaconu's trainer Pierre Bouchard. "I guess it was enough to impress the judges."
Pascal has a history of separating his right shoulder, an injury he first suffered during a fight against Esteban Camou two years ago. When asked if he thinks this recurring injury could ruin his career, Pascal said: "Only God knows."
Pascal said he thought he was finished when his right shoulder popped out of place toward the end of the third round, and he was clearly reluctant to throw any right hooks from the fourth round onward.
In the eighth round, Pascal gathered the energy to throw a furious attack on Diaconu, pinning him on the ropes and hitting him with at least a dozen body shots in a row.
"I told myself that if I had a chance to finish him I had to do it there," Pascal said. "I was even eyeing the referee to get him to stop the fight, but he wasn't listening."
The shoulder popped out for the final time toward the end of the 10th round. Pascal even motioned to referee Michael Griffin for time, but was ultimately saved by the bell.
In his corner between the 10th and 11th rounds Pascal had his shoulder popped back in, but after throwing nothing but jabs early in the 11th and 12th rounds he finished both with vicious combinations.
The antithesis to Pascal's quick, flashy style, Diaconu effectively plodded his way through the fight, consistently landing jabs and pinning Pascal on the ropes several times throughout the bout.
But Pascal's eye-catching combinations won him the favour of the judges.
"It was certainly the most dramatic and the most difficult fight of my career," Pascal said. "I'm still young so I have a lot of fights ahead of me, but I think this was the best show for the fans that I've ever offered."
Eric Lucas, 38 made a triumphant return to the ring after a near four-year absence from boxing in a light heavyweight bout against Argentine Ramon Pedro Moyano, ending it with a huge left hook to the chin at 43 seconds of the fourth round.
The former WBC super middleweight champion entered the ring to "Dreamer" by Ozzy Osbourne and received a big standing ovation from the crowd, which Lucas later described as "something out of a dream."
"It had been about five years since I fought in front of my home crowd, so I experienced it like it was something new, like I was doing it for the first time," Lucas said. "That left hook felt nice, but that (ovation) was a great feeling."
Lucas approached the first round tentatively, exchanging little more that exploratory jabs for much of the round. But he just missed on a big left hook just before the bell, giving a taste of what was to come.
Lucas landed two punishing left hooks in the second and was hitting the mark consistently with his jab, quickly countering the overmatched Moyano's rare attacks.
Lucas was less effective in the third round, but early in the fourth he took the advice of his trainer Stephane Larouche and waited for Moyano to open up on his jab to land the decisive hook to the chin.
"Can he be better? I believe he can," Larouche said. "He was very nervous tonight, I think he was more nervous than he was for his last title fight."
Lucas said that while nothing is definite, he would like to fight again. Larouche said that could happen as soon as March.
Up-and-coming middleweight David Lemieux of Montreal made quick work of American Delray Raines with a knockout at 2:51 of the second round to win the WBC Youth Intercontinental Championship, a world under-23 belt.
Lemieux, 20, improved his record to 20-0-0 with 20 knockouts, and the result of this bout was never in doubt.
Lemieux scored a knockdown in the first round and again early in the second. By the time Lemieux sent him down for the third and final time with a lightning-quick left hook, Raines was a bloody mess.
The biggest surprise in the evening's undercard bouts was Tebor Brosch of Mississauga, Ont., who fought local welterweight Manolis Plaitis to a majority draw. It was the first time in 15 professional bouts that Plaitis did not win, running his record to 14-0-1, while Brosch went to 4-3-4.
Plaitis won the bout on one of the judge's cards, 77-75, while both other judges scored the bout 76-76.
Earlier, heavyweight Eric Martel of Quebec City improved his record to 3-0-0 with a third round technical knockout of Vancouver's Alston (Tini) Brown, who fell to 3-5-1.
Former Olympian Benoit Gaudet of Drummondville, Que., won his lightweight bout over Montreal's Jorge Banos by technical knockout at 2:11 of the third round in the evening's opening bout.
