At 42 years old, Jean Pascal is mounting a charge to become the oldest ever cruiserweight world champion. Still, with Michal Cieslak standing in his way, it’ll take a mighty performance from the Haitian-born Canadian if he is to progress further.
Pascal, 37-7-1 (21 KOs), first won a world title all the way back in 2009, outpointing Adrian Diaconu for the WBC light-heavyweight strap and going on to make four defences of the belt before losing a rematch to Bernard Hopkins.
After 14 years and three failed challenges, Pascal is once again in pursuit of world honours. Here, he challenges Cieslak, 27-2 (21 KOs), in a bout for the WBC Interim cruiserweight strap. The victor is likely to move on to a clash against reigning champion Badou Jack.
More recently, Pascal has fought three times in three years, overcoming Fanlong Meng and Terry Osias, but losing to Michael Eifert in between those victories. In that contest, Pascal was outboxed by the German, a result that highlighted his age.
Meanwhile, both of Cieslak’s two career losses have come in unsuccessful world title challenges, losing decisions to Ilunga Makabu and Lawrence Okolie in 2020 and 2022, respectively.
Since suffering defeat to the latter, Cieslak has returned to fight in his homeland of Poland and strung together six consecutive knockout victories, claiming and then vacating the EBU European title during that time.
Whilst Cieslak may not have been facing elite-level competition, his activity and form make him a strong favourite this weekend against an out-of-sorts and flat-footed Pascal.
JEAN PASCAL VS MICHAL CIESLAK FIGHT PREDICTION
Pascal has gotten away with below-par performances in recent years, fortunate to get the decision against Meng and behind on the scorecards before a final-round stoppage against Osias.
This weekend, Boxing News believes that Pascal’s luck will run out and that the power of Cieslak will not allow for the fight to go the distance on Pascal’s home turf and potentially save him from defeat.
Instead, we predict that Cieslak will prove to be a level above Pascal’s latest opponents and have no trouble finding the target in a knockout win, with the fight becoming more one-sided the longer it lasts.
