The 32-year-old Russian dominated every round, masterfully cutting off the ring and landing left jabs at will before Pascal’s trainer Freddie Roach put a stop to the slaughter before the start of round eight — giving Kovalev a seventh-round technical knockout.
This was the Canadian’s first fight with six-time trainer of the year Roach, but the outcome was virtually the same as his March fight against Kovalev, which ended with an eight-round TKO for the Russian.
Kovalev retained his World Boxing Association, International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization titles as he improved to 29-0-1 with 26 knockouts.
The two became bitter rivals in the build up to the rematch with Pascal, who is black, accusing the Russian of being racist and Kovalev questioning Pascal’s character.
Kovalev told the crowd of 9,866 at the Bell Centre arena, immediately following the fight, that he purposely extended it to make Pascal suffer more.
.@THEREALBHOP and @KrusherKovalev celebrate another victory with mom. #KovalevPascal pic.twitter.com/XUppFWjc6E
— HBOboxing (@HBOboxing) January 31, 2016“He doesn’t respect anybody,” Kovalev said. “I don’t respect him and I never will.”
Pascal, who struggled to win a 10-round decision over Yunieski Gonzalez in his last fight, came in as the heavy underdog. He dropped to 30-4-1 with 17 knockouts.
Kovalev notched his eighth title defense since winning his first belt with a fourth-round knockout of Nathan Cleverly in 2013.
After destroying Pascal, Kovalev now plans to fight either former super middleweight champ Andre Ward or WBC light heavy champ Adonis Stevenson.
Stevenson, who watch the fight from ringside, climbed through the ropes and was jawing at Kovalev but keeping his distance. Kovalev then gave Stevenson the middle finger before being pushed away by several of his handlers.
