BOOK REVIEW: Legendary British fight figure Mickey Duff called him: “The most outstanding boxer from this county never to have fought for the world title.” Former flyweight champion Charlie Magri said of him: “He was fantastic. He should have earned a fortune.” Terry Lawless, London manager of world champions John H. Stracey, Maurice Hope and Magri, reflected: “He’s probably the most gifted boxer I have ever managed, different to everyone else. I’ve never seen people do things like him.”
Born in England in 1942. Life as a boxing writer began with a weekly column in a newspaper called the South London Advertiser in the early 1960s. Moved to the far bigger-circulation South London Press, writing a twice-weekly boxing section, in 1966. Joined the weekly Boxing News in 1970 and became editor in 1972. Moved across the pond in 1977 for marriage-related reasons and covered the American scene for Boxing News until joining Boxing Monthly in 1990.
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If every fight was as good as the one between Jean Pascal and Adrian Diaconu on Friday night, boxing would surely mount a comeback. Unfortunately, though, fights such as this tend to be few and far between.
The all-Quebec clash at Montreal’s Bell Centre had everything. There was the human interest angle, with two fighters from the Montreal area meeting to decide who was best, the rugged and heavy handed Romanian Diaconu and the flashier, more charismatic Haitian-born Pascal — and the tension in the big arena fairly crackled.
Then there was the fight itself, with its skill and courage, its drama and its swings of fortune.
Pascal was, I thought, magnificent as he boxed and fought his way to the unanimous decision to capture Diaconu’s WBC light-heavyweight title.
This was an upset, but even though Pascal lost to Carl Froch last December I was impressed with his chin, heart and fighting spirit in that memorable meeting. I had the feeling that the Froch fight would have brought Pascal to another level, because although he lost it was an honourable defeat that contained more of the positive than the negative.
I didn’t, though, expect quite such a stirring performance from Pascal in Friday's fight.
As Wally Matthews noted in the Versus commentary, Pascal seemed to living dangerously as he moved around the ring with hands low, but his punch-anticipation and sheer speed allowed him to make Diaconu miss time and again with huge hooks and right hands.
Diaconu was a dogged pursuer, though, and he always seemed to be in with a chance.
Every so often, Diaconu served up a reminder that he was still very much in the fight.
Down from a left hook in the fifth, Diaconu hurt Pascal with a right hand late in the round — and he had him hanging on in the 11th.
Pascal, though, kept firing back, unleashing some spectacular combinations and ripping shots into Diaconu’s sturdy body. It was breathtaking stuff, and Pascal closed out the fight in style with a rousing last round, hitting, moving yet also standing and fighting rather than trying to play it safe.
It was a dazzling display by Pascal, but Diaconu fought well and bravely in defeat and, as ever in fights such as this, boxing itself was the biggest winner.
