By Keith Idec

Lucian Bute impressed Jean Pascal by boxing as well as he did Saturday night against James DeGale.

Pascal, who beat Bute by unanimous decision in their light heavyweight showdown nearly two years ago in Montreal, scored the DeGale-Bute bout even.

Bute lost a unanimous decision to England’s DeGale (22-1, 14 KOs), the IBF super middleweight champion, but Pascal considers the Romanian-born Bute’s competitive performance a victory because before Saturday night the 35-year-old Bute’s hadn’t looked like a championship-caliber fighter since Carl Froch battered Bute (32-3, 25 KOs) on his way to fifth-round technical knockout win 3½ years ago.

“I want to congratulate Lucian Bute for his terrific fight on Saturday,” Pascal said while discussing his Jan. 30 light heavyweight championship rematch against Sergey Kovalev in Montreal.

“He did a very, very good fight. On my scorecard, I had a draw. He lost the fight on paper, but one thing that I can say, he lost the fight in a great fashion because he did very, very good. I think that Lucian Bute is back and this is very good for boxing in Quebec.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.