Jean Pascal made a controversial return to action after failing a drug test for several banned substances last year.
As World Boxing News covered extensively at the time, Pascal gave a sample that contained multiple adverse findings.
Calls for Pascal to get banned for life went unheeded as only the WBA removed the French-Canadian Haitian from the rankings for six months.
This unfathomable scenario allowed Pascal to compete and improve his record to 36-6-1, with 20 KOs.
The former two-time world champion scored a twelve-round decision win over Chinese contender Fanlong Meng.
Meng drops to 17-1 with 10 KOs with the reverse. The event took place in the main inaugural event of the new ex-fighter-led promotion ProBox TV and happened on Friday night in Plant City, Florida.
Pascal won with scores of 116-111, 115-112, and 114-113 at the ProBox Events Center.
Discussing the triumph, Pascal made no mention of his past misdemeanors as he tried to move on and repair his reputation.
“The layoff affected my timing,” said Pascal. “I tried to take the fight round-by-round.
“He was a very tough fighter. He was tougher than I expected. I saw that I could hurt him, so I pushed him. I tried to knock him out.”
JEAN PASCAL vs. FANLONG MENG UNDERCARD RESULTS
Below are the results for the quarterfinals of the Last Chance Tournament. All fights were scheduled for eight rounds in the super lightweight division.
Joseph Fernandez (13-1, 4 KOs) of St. Petersburg, Florida, defeated Zhiming Wang (11-4, 3 KOs) of Wuhan, China.
Unanimous decision. Scorecards: 74-78, 75-77 and 74-78
Kendo Castañeda (18-5, 9 KOs) of San Antonio, Texas, scored a first-round knockout victory over Toledo, Ohio’s Sonny Frederickson (21-6, 14 KOs).
The time of the stoppage was 2:02.
Michael Dutchover (16-2, 10 KOs) of Midland, Texas, scored a split decision win over Clarence Booth (21-5, 13 KOs) of St. Petersburg, Florida.
One judge had it 77-75 for Booth, while two others had it 78-74 and 77-75 for Dutchover.
Antonio “Toño” Moran (27-5-1, 19 KOs) of Mexico City, Mexico, beat Jeffrey Torres (10-1, 6 KOs) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Unanimous decision. Moran won with scores of 77-75, 79-73, and 77-75.
In the semifinal, Dutchover will face Castañeda, and Moran will meet Fernandez.
Further undercard results:
Lightweight prospect Jusiyah Shirley (5-0, 4 KOs) of Orlando, Florida, scored a six-round unanimous decision win over Miguel Perez (12-13-2, 8 KOs) of Sinaloa, Mexico.
Shirley won with three scores of 53-60.
Super middleweight prospect Daniel Blancas (2-0, 1 KO) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, won. In a four-round bout, he beat Heinrich Caceres (0-1) of Asuncion, Paraguay.
Blancas won with four scores of 40-36.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay.
WBN Editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. Follow WBN us on Twitter @WorldBoxingNews.
