This eighth round stoppage was the best light heavyweight fight in over 10 years. With Bernard Hopkins at ringside lending his moral weight to the cause of unification the number one contender, Pascal, came to win, with Roy Jones in his corner.

Pascal rightfully favors a Jones style as he has the same muscular build and freakish athleticism. Kovalev has a tall rangy build making this similar to the Vernon Forest versus Shane Mosley matchup from over a decade ago, with similar, if less brutal, results. Both fighters were rocked plenty, with the smaller more muscular man, Pascal, being seriously hurt three times, but showing strong recuperative powers.

Pascal, during the 6th round, used a high wing block to set up a counter right hand. Short fighters, check that out. Of course the announcers did not know what to call it and Hopkins is tightlipped about technique. Pascal used the waist roll better than most fighters, not permitting his hips to get locked and lunging into action for nasty counter attacks. I could see him leveling a normal tall light heavy.

Kovalev’s chin finally got tested as did his discipline. When he got Pascal hurt he went right hand happy and forgot what had gotten his man hurt. Whenever Kovalev returns to the power jab, fencing with his left from the hip into the body and chin and throwing rights over and under, he is relentlessly effective. A nice angle in his game was the right hook with sick power. Almost any fighter could learn from Kovalev’s light foot work and his energy transfer from his calves into the impaling body jab. This is a way of getting his fatty acid-burning endurance muscle to sap the thicker man’s glycogen burning strength muscle.

These two opposing body builds and well adapted fighting styles amounted to a fatty acid versus glycogen, calves against thighs, war of attrition. Thanks to Pascal’s well-muscled upper spine he took huge shots and survived. The end came when Kovalev pushed down on Pascal against the ropes and burned the rest of the juice out of his muscles. Hopkins almost laughed while the announcers tried to comprehend the tactic. Everybody knows a fat guy laying on you will drain your legs. But if the other guy is taller and weaker, as long as he knows how to shift his weight onto you he can drain you just the same.

I thought the fight was stopped about 5 seconds too soon. But it was certainly a done deal after Kovalev literally wrung the remaining glycogen out of Pascal’s thighs in round 7.

A rematch is in order.