HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – Undefeated Jean Pascal of Laval, Que., survived a late-round scare to unanimously outpoint Omar Pittman in a super-middleweight fight Friday night.
Trailing on the scorecards and with his right eye nearly shut, Pittman landed a solid left hook to the head that put Pascal in trouble in the seventh. Pascal clinched and retreated and Pittman scored with a right to the head in the final seconds.
In the opening seconds of the eighth, Pittman again hurt Pascal with a lead left to the head. But Pittman, from Philadelphia, failed to follow with sufficient shots to hurt Pascal until a counter right to the head at the end of the round.
In the final two rounds, Pascal again utilized the lead left that enabled him to build a huge lead in the early rounds.
Two judges scored the bout 98-91, and the third had it winning, 97-92.
Pascal, a native of Haiti who represented Canada in the 2004 Olympics, improved to 21-0, while Pittman dropped to 15-4-1.
In another bout, super-middleweight contender Edison Miranda stopped David Banks in the third round. Miranda (31-2) caught Banks (15-4-1) with a punishing right to the head, which sent Banks through the ropes and nearly into the officials table.
Banks struggled to reach his feet while he dangled in the ropes and failed to beat referee Frank Santore’s count, ending the fight at 1:15 of the round.
