Jean Pascal lives to fight on. He didn’t look graceful, but the Montreal based Haitian put forth a surprisingly dominant performance over PBC house prospect Ahmed Elbiali. The stoppage was a little premature, but the fight looked like it was heading there anyway.
The main event was an entertaining affair, as all Jean Pascal (32-5-1, 19 KOs) fights tend to be. Almost immediately Ahmed Elbiali (16-1, 13 KOs) was able to wobble Pascal with a great one two, but really that is all he accomplished through the six rounds the fight lasted. Elbiali showed absolutely no defense and a disinterest in accomplishing much on offense after a round or so.
All the young Egyptian prospect seemed interested in was coming in and giving Jean a hug. Pascal would wing his wild shots while looking unstable on his legs, but it didn’t matter. Sometimes Elbiali would fire back and make the exchanges even more exciting, but he didn’t land much. Basically anything Pascal threw would land though. Elbiali looked so bad at times in there that Pascal could simultaneously appear entirely shot while still dominating the fight. Yet, it was bizarrely fun to watch. I really enjoyed watching Jean Pascal succeed despite his limited remaining ability.
The sixth round stoppage was definitely premature. Elbiali was buzzed on the ropes, but he was also firing back. It did feel like Pascal was going to find a real stoppage before long anyway though at least.
As expected, Luis “King Kong” Ortiz (28-0, 24 KOs) got his quick finish of tall trial horse Daniel Martz (16-6-1, 6 KOs). After a nothing first round, the end came quickly in the second. The very first time Martz tried to attack, he was counted over top of a right hand and put down face first for good. Post-fight Deontay Wilder came into the ring and they jawed over an overwhelmed Jordan Hardy for an extended period of time.
Bryant Perrella (15-1, 13 KOs) nearly scored a first round knockout on a beautiful right hook over a dropped guard that put Alex Martin (13-3, 5 KOs) down really hard. He got up and survived the round, but he never really got his footing. I thought he won the fourth, but otherwise Perrella carried an increasingly tedious to watch fight on his activity.
In the show’s opener, Stephen Fulton (13-0, 5 KOs) outpointed Adam Lopez (8-1, 3 KOs) in a battle of super bantamweight unbeatens. Fulton was in some trouble early, particularly in the second round where he was definitely buzzed by a flurry. He recovered to control the rest of the fight, however, and won a narrow eight round majority decision.
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