In the main event of the HBO broadcast held at Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (29-0-1 26KOs) stopped Jean Pascal (30-4-1 17KOs) in a bitter rematch that turned personal in the build up to the fight in which race, an issue often avoided in public was the keystone to the fight week promote (and Kovalev’s views towards race) saw Sergey Kovalev brutal beatdown Jean Pascal.  In an ugly affair that saw Kovalev use his jab both to the body and head neutralize Pascal, a heavy clinch fest ensued as Pascal appeared hurt from the middle of the second round.

The fifth round saw the beginning of the end as Pascal took a lot of answered punches , but somehow survived the round. In between rounds Freddie Roach, Pascal’s new trainer, warned him he would stop the fight if he didn’t “…show him something”. Pascal took even more damage in the sixth round as Pascal pleaded to continue in the fight. Roach gave him one extra round, but stopped the bout in the eighth round in the corner.

In the co-main event of the HBO broadcast, welterweight Dmitry “The Mechanic” Mikhaylenko (21-0, 9 KOs) scored a dominate decision over late notice opponent Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield (19-3-1, 11 KOs) of San Francisco, CA. Late sub Mayfield, who replaced Ray Robinson to take the fight after Robinson was injured in a car accident. Mayfield started quickly, but appeared to land single hard shots as opposed to Mikhaylenko who was using volume to push back Mayfield. The final scores were 100-90, 100-90, 99-91 with the win Mikhaylenko claimed the vacant USBA title.