Filed under: WBC, Golden Boy Promotions, Boxing Rumors, HBO, Showtime, FanHouse Exclusive
It had appeared that WBC President Jose Sulaiman would honor light heavyweight (175 pounds) king Jean Pascal of Canada's contractual obligation to rematch southpaw former WBC interim titlist Chad Dawson of New Haven, Conn., before taking perhaps a return bout against Bernard Hopkins of Philadelphia, according to Pacal's promoter, Yvon Michel.
That is, that seemed to be the likelihood on Dec. 19 -- one day after Pascal had dropped Hopkins once each during the first and third rounds of their disputed, Showtime televised majority draw.
Michel was responding to an assertion by Golden Boy Promotions' CEO Richard Schaefer, who handles Hopkins, that Sulaiman would order an immediate rematch in response to Schaefer's protest of their controversial fight contested before Pascal's partisan fans at the Pepsi Colesium in Quebec City, Canada.
The 28-year-old Pascal (26-1-1, 16 knockouts) entered his match up with Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KOs), who will turn 46 on January 15, coming off of his fifth straight win, which was August's HBO-televised, 11th-round technical unanimous decision victory over Dawson (29-1, 17 KOs) that was staged at Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada.
"We had a short press conference today, and Jose Sulaiman was there. And like everybody who has said, as a fan, that they would like to see a rematch. Jose Sulaiman said that he would like to see a rematch. But he said that it was a close fight and that he believed that it was the right decision because he trusts his judges," Michel told FanHouse on Dec. 19.
"But he also said that he is concerned that both fighters want to do a rematch if they can, and he said that it is up to him, but that he has not ordered a rematch. And he said that he doesn't think he will either," said Michel. "But if Golden Boy does file a protest, then it will be studied by the WBC. But he said that that does not mean that there will be an immediate rematch. But, as a fan, he would like to see that. This is exactly what he has told us."
But during a Wednesday conversation with FanHouse, Sulaiman sounded more convincing that Hopkins would get his wish by the end of the week.
Sulaiman said that nearly half of the votes of the WBC's 32-member Board of Governers supported an immediate rematch with Pascal, after which the winner would then meet Dawson.
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