Jean Pascal scores last round knockout of Terry Osias in Laval, Canada

Jean Pascal continues to defy Father Time.

Pascal scored a knockout victory over Terry Osias late Saturday night at Le Colisee in his hometown of Laval, Canada. Pascal, who improved to 37-7-1, 21 knockouts, won a regional title belt at cruiserweight.

The 41-year-old looked to land one big right hand on Osias after throwing jabs as a gauge in the opening round. As Pascal tried to close the distance between the two, Osias used lateral movement around the small ring, also working behind a series of jabs himself.

Towards the end of round two, Osias landed a straight jab, followed by a right cross to the head of Pascal, who did not appear visibly injured from the impact of the blow. Osias fought in leaps and bounds in the first half of the fight, throwing straight left-right combinations to the head of Pascal and landing. Undeterred, Pascal made Osias pay for posing in front of him, throwing a two-punch combination that forced Osias to clinch.

During the middle rounds, Osias outboxed Pascal. At times Pascal missed completely with right hands or combinations, allowing Osias to capitalize and counter with a straight right or counter left hand to the head.

By round seven, Osias’ punch output had dropped significantly. He fought with his mouth open as Pascal continued to throw repeated punches, but he began to change his offense and land straight lead right hands to the head of Osias.

Pascal thought he had scored a takedown at the end of round eight. After the 10-second warning, a right hand by Pascal landed on Osias’ jaw. Pascal threw and landed two more punches that dropped Osias to the canvas. Referee Martin Forest ruled Osias slipped to the canvas, much to the consternation of Pascal, who hurt Osias late in round nine with a flurry of punches.

Moments into round 10, Pascal unleashed a vicious right cross that dropped Osias to the bottom two ring ropes, and eventually to the canvas. Forest started to count but saw the fight off at 56 seconds.

At the start of round 10, one judge had Osias ahead 87-84, while the other two judges had Pascal ahead 86-85 and an astonishing 89-82.

Pascal has not fought since a decision loss to Germany’s Michael Eifert in an IBF world light heavyweight title eliminator on March 16 last year. Before the loss to Eifert, Pascal had wins over Fanlong Meng, Badou Jack and Marcus Browne, all three after losing to WBA world light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol in November 2018.

In June 2009, Pascal defeated Adrian Diaconu to win the WBC world light heavyweight title. Pascal would make four successful title defenses before losing the world title belt to Bernard Hopkins in May 2011.

Osias, who lives in Longueuil, Canada, is 13-1, 6 KOs. In his previous fight on March 23, the 37-year-old defeated Marcos Karalitzky by decision over six one-sided rounds.

Also on the card promoted by Yan Pellerin, super middleweight prospect Derek Pomerleau of Montreal improved to 10-0, 8 KOs, knocking out former world title challenger Marcelo Coceres of Argentina in 31 seconds of round five.

Coceres, who was a late replacement, falls to 32-8-1, 18 KOs and has now lost six of his last eight fights.

In cruiserweight action, Dany Mallette stopped Peter Gavrilovic (5-1, 1 KO) of Sherbrooke, Canada in the opening round. Mallette, who lives in Quebec City, improves to 2-0, 2 KOs.