by David P. Greisman

The first fight between Sergey Kovalev and Jean Pascal ended as an eighth-round stoppage in which Pascal felt the referee should’ve allowed him to continue. There were no such protests in their rematch, which Kovalev won after punishing Pascal for seven rounds until Pascal’s trainer, Freddie Roach, stopped the bout.

There’s not been any love lost between the two fighters; Kovalev is open about his dislike of Pascal, who in turn has called Kovalev a racist for comments he’s made and a post Kovalev put up on social media.

“Regardless of what he is a person, Sergey Kovalev is a great champion. I give him all the credit he deserves,” Pascal said afterward, via quotes provided by promoter Main Events, which promotes Kovalev.

And given the noise Pascal had made for more stringent drug testing to be done the first time around, he was glad that the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association was brought in for the rematch.

A Main Events representative told Mike Coppinger of USA Today that VADA testing began in late November.

Said Pascal, via quotes provided by Main Events: “This is the first time he showed he is a clean athlete, and I was pleased to prove this by paying for his VADA drug testing.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com