Lucian Bute and Jean Pascal met on Saturday night in what was an incredible match up on paper for boxing fans. The bout is for for Bute’s NABF light heavyweight title, but the belt is not considered a word title.

That said, it was still a very important bout in the light heavyweight division.

The fight took place at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where both men now call home.

The first round carried a slow pace with both men feeling out their opponents, but Pascal appeared to be getting the better of the early exchanges and he was clearly the more active fighter.

Pascal was staying low to start off the second round, before Bute landed a few clean shots. Pascal continued to work from the center of the ring and stalk his opponent, but Bute was picking up his pace little by little. Pascal opened up with a wild flurry at the end of Round 2 that backed Bute up against the ropes and appeared to hurt him. The flurry once again were in Pascal’s favor as he earned another round on the scorecards.

Bute looked more comfortable in the third round and began opening up his attack as he finally started scoring some punches. Some damage was beginning to show under Pascal’s eye as Bute put together his best round of the fight.

Pascal worked to the body to kick off Round 4, before beginning to work his way upstairs with some big shots. Bute was able to avoid any clean shots and began working his jab. Pascal regained the momentum and began opening up with another wild flurry that stumbled Bute near the end of the round.

Bute was finding some isolated success with some counters, but the volume from Pascal was leaving a bigger impression in the eyes of those watching.

A huge left uppercut from Bute was one of the biggest shots in Round 5, as Pascal appeared to be conserving some of his energy for the second half of the fight. The two men were working the clinch and dirty boxing in the fifth, which slowed down the pace of the fight.

Pascal was keeping his hands down as the sixth round began, but once he opened up he got Bute to back up against the ropes. Pascal was mixing up shots to the body and head and was once again the more aggressive fighter.

Bute was going to need to pick up the pace and begin throwing at a higher volume in order to turn the fight around.

Our scorecard had the fight at 59-55 for Pascal at the midway point of the fight.