Haitian-born Canadian Jean Pascal (37-7-1, 21 KOs) is seeking to conquer the vacant WBC Interim cruiserweight belt, last held by Marcelo Fabian Dominguez in 1995!
Argentinian Dominguez was the first and only holder of the Interim title, winning it and defending it twice, all within three months between July to October 1995. He eventually elevated to the WBC world cruiserweight champion in 1996, which he held until 1998.
In December last year, the belt was contested by Ryan Rozicki and Yamil Alberto Peralta, but the bout ended in a draw, so the belt remained vacant.
So now, veteran Pascal will face Poland’s Michal Cieslak (27-2, 21 KOs) on July 28th at the Place Bell in Laval, Canada on a New Era Promotions event, which also features Marcus Browne vs Olanrewaju Durodola.
The winner will finally end the title’s 30-year vacancy.
Both Pascal and Cieslak are experienced, capable fighters with the same number of KOs and similar amount of fights.
The 36-year-old Pole is trained by Andrzej Liczik and has challenged for the WBC world cruiserweight title before, in 2020, losing a close contest with Ilunga Makabu via unanimous decision. He also took Lawrence Okolie the distance when challenging for the WBO world cruiserweight title in 2022.
Cieslak became European cruiserweight champion in 2023 and defended the blue belt successfully to Irishman Tommy McCarthy later the same year. He fought twice in 2024, and is currently riding on a six-fight KO streak.
Now 42, the seasoned Pascal is a two-time light-heavyweight world champion, who first turned pro 20 years ago in 2005. His first crack at a word title came against now-retired Carl Froch for the WBC super-middleweight strap in 2008.
He moved up to win the WBC world light-heavyweight title just two bouts later in 2009. He defended it four times, whilst adding the IBO and Ring titles, before conceding it to Bernard Hopkins in 2011, another fighter who has long-since retired – nine years ago now. Both Froch and Hopkins have since been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Pascal attempted to dethrone Sergey Kovalev in 2015 and 2016, but unsuccessfully. The same fate occurred agaainst Dmitry Bivol in 2018, but then he boldly came back to hold the WBA Regular light-heavyweight title between 2019-2021.
The 45-fight veteran has won titles at super-middle, light-heavy and cruiser. His dream is to end his career as a three-weight world champion, but Cieslak is desperately ambitious to become a world champion for the first time on his third attempt.
The two boxers will be looking to make it third time’s a charm, but only one can prevail.
