Browne Expected To Exercise Clause For Rematch With Pascal

By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Marcus Browne won’t know for a while how long it’ll take to completely heal from the disgusting cut he suffered Saturday night.

The former WBA interim light heavyweight champion is sure that he wants a chance to regain his title and avenge his only professional loss. BoxingScene.com has learned that Browne intends to exercise a rematch clause in his contract that would guarantee him a second fight against Jean Pascal.

Quebec’s Pascal upset Browne by technical decision Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn to capture a version of the WBA’s 175-pound crown. When and where their rematch will take place is still to be determined.

“Those are discussions we’ll have internally with PBC and TGB,” Greg Leon, Pascal’s manager, told BoxingScene.com, referring to Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions and promoter Tom Brown.

The 36-year-old Pascal (34-6-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC) would welcome a rematch in Montreal or elsewhere in Quebec, where the popular Pascal is a proven ticket-seller. Three of Pascal’s past four fights have taken place in the United States, though, and that trend could continue for the Quebec-based champion.

“I think it would sell more tickets [in Quebec],” Leon said. “We’ll see. Jean’s been doing pretty good on his American tour. He had the win over [Ahmed] Elbiali, in Elbiali hometown [near Miami]. Now he has a win over Marcus Browne in Marcus Browne’s hometown. I don’t know. Maybe we’ll go back home. Maybe we’ll keep this thing going where we go to people’s backyards. Pascal, I’m sure he’d love to fight in Montreal again. But we’ll see. We’re gonna fight where the fight makes the most sense.”

Regardless, Pascal proved he still could win at the championship level by upsetting the previously unbeaten Browne (23-1, 16 KOs).

Staten Island’s Browne, 28, was listed as a 20-1 favorite by several Internet sports books and was widely considered the better, fresher fighter. None of that stopped Pascal from flooring him three times – once in the fourth round and twice in the seventh round – before their fight ended in the eighth round due to the gruesome gash Browne sustained above his left eye from an accidental clash of heads.

Pascal edged Browne by the same score, 75-74, on the cards of judges Glenn Feldman, Julie Lederman and Steve Weisfeld. All three judges scored the uncompleted eighth round for Pascal, which accounted for the one-point difference on each of their scorecards.

“Self-belief is a hell of a thing,” Leon said. “I think Jean has proven throughout his career that he has the intestinal fortitude and the courage and the heart and the determination to keep fighting against whoever. And it showed. It paid dividends [Saturday] night. When you keep fighting the best, it’s not easy to win every single fight. Of the last nine guys that he fought, seven of them were undefeated killers.”

Seven of Pascal’s past nine fights have come against Sergey Kovalev (twice), Yunieski Gonzalez, Eleider Alvarez, Elbiali, Dmitry Bivol and Browne. All of them were unbeaten when they opposed Pascal, who went 3-4 in those fights.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.