Pascal vs Erdei, Taylor vs Alcine Double-Header Tentative For April 14 on Showtime

The proposed double-header featuring Jean Pascal vs Zsolt Erdei and Jermain Taylor vs Joachim Alcine that we reported last night has a tentative date, according to Rick Reeno of BoxingScene.com, but a lot of kinks yet to be worked out before the fights are finalized.

The date would be April 14, with Showtime televising as expected, but right now there are potential money and venue issues. A split site show is being discussed, with Pascal vs Erdei in Quebec and Taylor vs Alcine in Arkansas, which doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, but would perhaps appease Taylor, who would like to have another fight at home, one assumes, while he's on this comeback trail.

As for money, Reeno says that Taylor-Alcine is a lot closer to finalized than Pascal-Erdei, and given Pascal's repeated issues making fights since he lost to Bernard Hopkins last year, you may want to take all of this with a grain of salt from the Pascal side. It's hard not to suspect he's not rushing back into the ring, or all that anxious to get back in there. His latest negotiations with Ismayl Sillakh just fell through.

The show could possibly be billed as a "special ShoBox," which are never all that special, and really doesn't make much sense -- but one issue with scheduling this for April 14 is that HBO has a fight fan's wet dream going on that night with the Brandon Rios vs Yuriorkis Gamboa fight. It might be better off to put the Showtime card on Friday night, but for some reason boxing programmers don't like to get that creative.

We'll have more on the fight when there's news. It appears as though it's going to happen, but you never know with Pascal. His hang-ups could well get in the way.