| Fight Date: | January 18, 2014 |
| Location: | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Fighter1: |  Jean Pascal |
| Record1: | 28-2-1 (17 KO) |
| Hometown1: | Port-au-Prince, Ouest, Haïti |
| Weight1: | 175 lbs |
| Style1: | Orthodox |
| Recognition1: | WBC No. 2 Ranked Light Heavyweight WBO No. 7 Ranked Light Heavyweight IBF No. 11 Ranked Light Heavyweight |
| Fighter2: |  Lucian Bute |
| Nickname2: | Le Tombeur Mister KO |
| Record2: | 31-1 (24 KO) |
| Hometown2: | Pechea, Galați County, Romania |
| Weight2: | 175 lbs |
| Style2: | Southpaw |
| Recognition2: | WBC No. 3 Ranked Light Heavyweight WBO No. 8 Ranked Light Heavyweight |
| Titles: | NABF and vacant WBC Diamond Light Heavyweight titles |
| Result: | Pascal beats Bute by unanimous decision. |
Jean Pascal vs. Lucian Bute was a boxing light heavyweight Diamond championship fight for the vacant WBC Diamond title which took place on January 18, 2014 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] The bout, originally slated for May 25, 2013, had to be postponed after Bute underwent surgery to remove bone chips in his left hand.[6]
The co-production of Yvon Michel's GYM and Jean Bédard's Interbox promotions and televised via HBO, has trumped a proposed HBO-televised rematch between Jean Pascal and RING and WBC 175-pound champion Chad Dawson that was slated for the same date at Bell Centre in Montreal. Lucian Bute had the right to face Carl Froch in a contractually obligated rematch for the IBF Super Middleweight belt, but passed on that, freeing the Englishman to face Mikkel Kessler.[7]
It was the biggest fight in Canadian history since 1980, when Roberto Durán won a 15-round decision to win the welterweight world title in his first fight against Sugar Ray Leonard at Montreal's Olympic Stadium in front of 46,000 spectators.[8] Bute, who is fighting out of Montreal, versus Pascal was pitting the two biggest draws and most popular fighters in Canadian boxing who are considered huge stars in Quebec.[8] Pascal ended up winning the fight by unanimous decision.[9]
Pascal came off a unanimous-decision triumph over Aleksy Kuziemski in December 2012 that helped him to rebound from the unanimous-decision loss to Bernard Hopkins in May 2011.[7]
Bute came off a unanimous-decision victory over previously unbeaten Denis Grachev in November 2012, which helped him to rebound from last May's fifth-round knockout loss to Froch that dethroned him as titleholder.[7]
| Fight card | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight Class | Result | Round | Time | Notes | ||||
| Light Heavyweight | Jean Pascal | vs. | Lucian Bute | |||||
| Heavyweight |  Mike Perez | vs. |  Carlos Takam | |||||
| Light Heavyweight |  Eleider Álvarez | vs. | Andrew Gardiner | |||||
| Bantamweight | Sebastien Gauthier | vs. |  Javier Franco | |||||
| Welterweight | Mikaël Zewski | vs. |  Krzysztof Szot | |||||
| Light Middleweight | Sebastien Bouchard | vs. |  Giuseppe Lauri | |||||
| Light Welterweight | vs. |  Evaggelos Tsirimokos | ||||||
| Heavyweight | Oscar Rivas | vs. | Shawn Cox | |||||
| Light Heavyweight | vs. |  Gabriel Lecrosnier | ||||||
| Country / Region | Broadcaster |
|---|---|
| Australia | Main Event |
| Brazil | SporTV |
| Canada | Indigo |
| Croatia | Fight Channel |
| France | Canal+ Sport |
| Hungary | Sport 1 |
| Poland | Polsat Sport |
| Romania | |
| United States | |
| United Kingdom | Sky Sports |