Jean Pascal spent about six months last year in what the former WBC light heavyweight champion called “a very dark place.”

The performance-enhancing drug scandal that cost Pascal his rematch with Badou Jack almost a year ago tarnished the Quebec-based boxer’s legacy. Testing positive for four banned substances made skeptics question whether Pascal, who had long been a vocal advocate for improved PED testing in boxing, had benefited from artificial advantages before last year.

“I had a very bad depression,” Pascal told krikya360.com. “You know, I was seeing black. It was like a black tunnel. And with the help of my family, my friends and especially my daughter, Angel, they helped me out, to get me out of that black tunnel. And now I’m back here and I want to show my daughter that, you know, don’t let people’s opinions become your reality.”

By here, he referred to Plant City, Florida, where the 39-year-old Pascal will face unbeaten Chinese southpaw Meng Fanlong in a 12-round main event Friday night. Fanlong (17-0, 10 KOs) and Pascal (35-6-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC) will headline a five-fight show that’ll be streamed by www.ProBoxTV.com, starting at 7:30 p.m. ET ($1.99 per month; $18 for an annual subscription).

Pascal considers this fight his chance to redeem himself nearly exactly a year after he tested positive for Drostanolone, Drostanolone Metabolite, Epitrenbolone and Erythropoietin (EPO) in tests taken by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association. Drostanolone is an anabolic steroid, which drew the ire of Shaun George, Fanlong’s trainer, during an interview this week with krikya360.com (//krikya360.com/fanlongs-trainer-pascal-cheat-hes-lying-got-caught-now-hes-trying-save-face--166360).

Other than the word “contamination,” Pascal hasn’t offered many details as to how he tested positive for multiple performance enhancers. Jack, who lost a split decision to Pascal in their 12-round fight for the WBA world light heavyweight title in December 2019, told krikya360.com before he stopped Dervin Colina, Pascal’s late replacement last June 6, that Pascal should’ve been banned permanently from boxing for his transgressions.

Pascal insists that he didn’t knowingly do anything wrong while preparing for his rematch with Sweden’s Jack.

“That was very hard for me because I didn’t understand anything,” Pascal said, “what was going on, because I’ve been fighting for a clean sport for so many years, for more than a decade. I’m the one who was asking people to take drug testing when I fought [Sergey] Kovalev, when I fought [Bernard] Hopkins, when I fought [Lucian] Bute. And one thing that I know, this was an accident. And people was telling me, ‘Oh, now we have to put a question mark on what you did before?’ Nah, guys, you can’t do that because it’s not like I’m a guy who was winning and then got tested and got busted. I’ve been winning and getting tested.”

Pascal’s only loss in five fights since a then-undefeated Eleider Alvarez beat him by majority decision in June 2017 was a 12-round, unanimous-decision loss to unbeaten WBA light heavyweight champ Dmitry Bivol in November 2018.

“Every major fight that I won, I was tested,” Pascal said. “When I fought Bute, I was tested. When I fought Marcus Browne, I was tested. So, you know, you can’t question what I did before because I was tested before. And also, the amount that we found [last year] was so little that it was contamination. But like I said, I don’t wanna come back to that. This is [the] past. I need to look forward and, you know, even this fight I’m getting tested. And, you know, I wanna show the world that I’m a clean athlete. Last time, maybe it was bad luck. Maybe it was a setup. I don’t know. But I don’t care anymore. I have to move forward.”

Fanlong and Pascal were tested for PEDs during their training camps, though multiple sources informed krikya360.com that VADA was not the company contracted to oversee this testing process.

Pascal, who will fight for the first time in 28 months, acknowledged that it took him longer than usual to re-establish his speed and timing during this training camp. He is confident, however, that he’ll defeat Fanlong, a 2012 Olympian who is the IBF’s number one contender in the 175-pound division despite that the 34-year-old veteran has beaten mostly a low level of opposition since he made his pro debut in January 2015.

“When I was fighting Marcus Browne, people was telling me, ‘Jean, you should retire. Jean is washed up. Jean this and that,’ ” Pascal recalled of his technical-decision victory over the previously unbeaten Browne in August 2019. “And I never let those kind of opinions become my reality. I said, ‘You know what? F--- them! I’ll show them I’m better than that.’ Then I went and won my second world title [from Browne]. So, you know, I was very proud about that. And, you know, that’s why I wanna show my fans, my people, that never let people’s opinions become your reality. It’s not like because people are telling you like you’re not good, you’re washed up, that it has to be true.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.