At 168, Eubank clearly wins. At 175? Eubank did fuck all at 175, so naturally Pascal would have be favored. Overall, Eubank was a MUUUCCHH better fighter.
Saying Eubank is much better than Pascal is pure nonsense. how many journeyman did eubank rob during his bum tour? Silvio branco and diaconu were better than most (if not all )of these guys, and pascal wiped his ass with them. Yet Eubank was pretty much always struggling against these type of opponents if not robbing them (the "i wasnt motivated for him" excuse doesnt cut it after the 5th time). And Pascal resume is level above eubank. its incredible how much mileage he gets for the benn win (a great performance against a flawed fighter whom he matched great against), and a pure fluke punch against Watson. Now, i agree that he has a lot of tools that would trouble pascal, but i think he's a bit too passive to get a decision (i cant see him koing pascal, who despite all his flaws, was very durable). I can see an argument for picking Eubank, but claiming he was much better is simply some alternative reality bs.
Thompson was a fringe contender at best. I dont get why eubank fan are so enamored by that performance
What makes you think he would smash pascal. The only quality guys he beat was a very green Haye (who was exhausted), and a much smaller Eubank. The ony guy that smashed pascal was Kovy, and he was in a different stratosphere than Thompson. He was pretty much, imo, the definition of fringe contender
Thompson at his best was top five in his division, and beat at least five ranked fighters off the top of my head (Rothmann, Duran, Tafer, Dunstan & Rolf) and was ranked top five in his division on multiple occasions, across nine years. Pascal would come straight at Thompson, and he isn't surviving that power. He was far more explosve than Kovalev, and produced more devastating KOs. He had more heart and stamina than Kovalev ever did.
Cruiser was an extremely weak division at that time. I don't believe for a second that you think that these guys were any good. As for thompson against pascal, I guess it isnt out of the realm of possibility that thompson wins, but it would be an upset. As i said before, pascal was extremely durable, and he wasnt a slouch defensively. Thompson koing hin would be very surprising. His main weaknesses were a lack of stamina and boxing iq, but i don't think that thompson was good enough to take advantage of them (though i do think pascal would have a lot of trouble dealing with Thompson strength (see the gonzalez fight)). At the end of the day, i think that Pascal is a very underrated fighter. He had a pretty ugly style, but he did beat a top 10, if not top 5, p4p fighter. And he beat or was competitive with a lot of elite guys
I don't think they're great, not at all. But it's relative to the division. These were among the best men in the world, and Thompson stopped all of them. Doesn't matter whether they're absolutely shit or all-time greats. They were among the best at the time and Thompson knocked them out. What more can you ask for? Being better than them all, and being good enough to reach a top five ranking at the age of 45, shows you're a lot more than just a fringe contender. Thompson was a brutish powerhouse with a high workrate and a massive heart. He also had a pretty good chin. He'd level Pascal.
Rothmann was a good fighter, that was an absurd victory really. Thompson was getting absolutely pasted all over the place for nine rounds and then pulls a fight ending punch out of nowhere.
Anyway sorry, don't mean to take the thread off track. I would pick Eubank to win a close one. I think Eubank was talented but he does the thing which annoys me more than anything about fighters and that's give rounds away cheaply. Pascal is definitely winning rounds in this one.
I just.dont.see it. Thompson was a strong guy, but he was basic and didn't used angles. Pascal would indeed come straight at him, but he had great defense against guys fighting like this (see the diaconu fights). Where he really struggled was against intelligent and skilled fighters, who would slightly pivot when he was coming him and disrupt his bobbing and weaving. That.why Kovalev, bhop and bivol were able to catch him so easily.
It took all the finesse of Carl Froch to beat Pascal. If Thompson goes out on the aggressive from the start like he did in the Eubank rematch, I have absolutely no doubt he'd beat Pascal from pillar to post.
Yeah, I'm seeing the Froch v Pascal war in my head when I think about this one and I see the farmer standing in the middle of the ring, trading bombs and coming out on top of almost every exchange. That's Thompson's wheelhouse, right there. MTF
Disagreed entirely. Froch won that fight cause of his jab, which was a punch pascal always had trouble against (see, the alvarez, Kovalev and gonzalez fight). Thompson jab wasnt nearly as good. They would engage at close range, and i see pascal ducking most of his punches, which were often telegraphed. Does thompson has a chance? Sure, hes bigger and pascal isnt a special fighter, but he proved himself so much more than thompson, that i think he deserves to be the clear favorite. To be honest, i don't get the thompson hype. Guy was average as hell, and never really beat anybody bar a really green haye (not to mention that he has a lot of bad defeats). I dont see how you can make him a favorite against a guy like Pascal, who despite all his flaws, has been near the top of the 175 for nearly a decade, and i dont see anything that suggest hed batter him
