By Jake Donovan

In what has become a condensed version of a one-time appealing mid-level Pay-Per-View show, Jean Pascal will now face Roberto Bolonti in the modified headliner on December 6 in Montreal. 

The bout was formed for the sake of salvaging the show, which was originally designed to have past rivals Pascal and Lucian Bute in separate bouts. Bute was to headline the show versus Bolonti, while Pascal agreed to face Donovan George in the show's chief support, despte having decisively beaten Bute in their head-to-head clash in January. 

Both bouts fell apart for vastly different reasons.

Bute dropped out of the show earlier this week after suffering a back injury. Bolonti's camp was told there would be a good chance of the light heavyweight contender from Argentina remaining on the show. 

That's because rumors began to swirl that George would wind up pulling out of the fight due to what the Chicagoland super middleweight felt were unfair expectations placed upon him.

Contracts called for all fighters to be in country by no later than seven days prior to fight night. However, there was concern over George's ability to get in country given his criminal past. Apparently there were issues in his arriving in Canada on time for his Oct. '12 super middleweight eliminator with Adonis Stevenson, which he lost by 12th round knockout.

Pascal's team was willing to modify the contract to ensure that George was properly compensated for arriving and staying in Canada a week longer than expected. However, the American boxer—whose wife just gave birth to twins—didn't feel compelled to give in to such terms, thus losing out on a healthy five-figure payday. 

The December 6 show is vital for Pascal to remain active, as fights have been hard to come by in recent times for the former light heavyweight king. 

Waiting in the wings is a mandatory title shot versus Stevenson, though Pascal also currently represents the most appealing option for unified titlist Sergey Kovalev, who will be in dire need of opponents if he wants to remain an HBO headliner. Also in queue is a contracted rematch with Bute, whenever the two sides choose to enforce such a fight. Their first fight came after both had lost separate titles, but was still a box office smash in Canada. 

While Pascal-Bolonti remains the most appealing bout on the show, fans at the Bell Centre will still get to see a live screening on the arena's jumbotron of David Lemieux' HBO-televised debut versus Gabriel Rosado, which takes place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of krikya360.com, as well as the Records Keeper for the 

 

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