Results: Michael Eifert upsets Jean Pascal, wins clear decision in IBF eliminator

Michael Eifert earned a clear decision win tonight over Jean Pascal, and even more important, the judges actually got it right and gave it to him.

Eifert got the upset win in Laval, Quebec, on scores of 115-113, 117-111, and 118-110. Though the right guy won, the 115-113 card is still terrible and should be called out. Bad Left Hook unofficially scored the fight 118-110 for Eifert.

Germany’s Eifert (12-1, 4 KO) was not really expected to win here, even by those who saw how sluggish and old Pascal (36-7-1, 20 KO) looked in last year’s controversial win over Meng Fanlong in Florida.

Pascal was similar in this fight, but worse. His bursts of fighting effort were fewer and farther between, and far less eye-catching, and to give Eifert his due credit, the German underdog made Pascal pay a lot, and just flat out-boxed him for such large stretches of the fight, that it would have been all-timer egregious to give Pascal the cards here. It’s bad enough he won five rounds on one judge’s card.

At 40, Pascal looks pretty well done. He’s still a tough man who can take some shots — Eifert swelled his face up pretty good over the course of this one, and Eifert is no power puncher — but his legs are gone, and even a small-looking ring couldn’t help him, as Eifert was still able to simply move around too much and consistently create too much space.

If the judges had given Pascal this win tonight, putting him in the ring with Artur Beterbiev at some point in the next year or so would have been criminal. The 25-year-old Eifert going into a ring with Beterbiev is no great proposition that anyone will be clamoring to see, being honest, but he’s at least in his prime.

Undercard results

• Mathieu Germain UD-10 Steven Wilcox: Germain just the better of the two regional-level veterans here, though Wilcox gave you reason to think late in the fight that if he’d adjusted his tactics, this might have been a different story. Ultimately, Wilcox (24-4-1, 7 KO) kind of just gave some rounds away between the second and sixth, and Germain (22-2-1, 9 KO) did enough to earn the win. Scores were 96-94, 97-93, and 97-93, all fair. Bad Left Hook had 97-93. Germain is 33 and not exactly crashing the world title scene at 140, but he remains a solid fighter out there in the world.
• Karla Ramos Zamora TKO-4 Jessica Camara: A pretty big upset here, as Camara (10-4, 2 KO) may not have the prettiest W-L record, but has been a contender and was a clear favorite against Ramos (10-9-1, 2 KO), who was brought in here to lose, let’s call it what it is. The promoters in Quebec do this a lot, they bring in a group of Mexican fighters to serve as B-sides, and they almost always all lose. They had been losing all night, going 0-3 prior to this one. Ramos was on her game, though, then cracked Camara with a good right hand late in round four, and flurried away to finish it, forcing the referee to step in. There was a regional IBF title on the line here, obviously designed to put Camara right back in line for a 140 lb title shot at some point, and instead Ramos has it now. We’ll see if that winds up meaning anything for her or if she just disappears back into the tall grass.
• Joe Ward TKO-1 Mario Andrade Rodriguez: A fight that showed us nothing we didn’t already know about Ward (9-1, 5 KO), a longtime amateur standout for Ireland who is now 29 years old. This went about 90 seconds. Ward dropped Andrade (7-1, 4 KO) on a left hand, and it was basically over then. The referee gave Andrade a chance, but a couple more shots landed and he jumped in. They really need to step Ward up this year if he’s going to actually be anything as a pro.
• Caroline Veyre UD-6 Anaelle Angerville: A solid six-round win for Veyre (3-0, 0 KO), a 34-year-old who represented Canada at the Tokyo Olympics. Not saying she can’t have several more good years, but she’s at an age where becoming a top pro is going to be a little tough, and while she’s skilled, she doesn’t have the look in these early pro bouts of someone who’s going to do well against top pros at 122/126, which are usually pretty competitive divisions, at least with strong fighters at/near the top. But we’ll see! Angerville (5-2-1, 0 KO) gave this a solid effort. Judges’ scores were 59-55, 59-55, and 60-54.
• Yoel Angeloni TKO-2 Alexander Calixto: Good showing from 19-year-old welterweight Angeloni (2-0, 1 KO), who just came out here, went to work, and dominated. Just precise and measured, got in and got out. Calixto (1-2, 1 KO) probably gave about the best effort he could. He hadn’t fought in over two years.
• Amanda Galle UD-8 Lorena Cruz Aispuro: Solid win for Galle (8-0-1, 1 KO) on scores of 79-73, 80-72, 80-72. Judges didn’t give Cruz (4-3, 0 KO) as much credit as she might have deserved, but Galle earned the win, this wasn’t a repeat of the Marie Pier Houle vs Marisol Moreno disaster at the same venue in January.