Photo © Justin McKie - Jean Pascal will be looking to make it 2 in a row over Adrian Diaconu this Friday night in Montreal.

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Andrew Fruman looks at what Adrian Diaconu can do to improve his chances in Friday's rematch with Jean Pascal.

With a terrific crowd, few clinches and plenty of heavy shots exchanged, the June 19th match-up between Jean Pascal and Adrian "The Shark" Diaconu was one of the better fights the sport has seen this year. But as exciting as the bout was, there was never a question of who the rightful winner was, with the much quicker Pascal clearly holding a decisive edge over the 12 rounds.

Given the clear cut nature of Pascal’s victory, it’s natural to wonder whether or not Diaconu has a chance of turning things around. He's got a chance – but he needs to change up his approach to compensate for the huge disparity in speed between the two fighters.

Here are a few strategies that might help Diaconu in the rematch…

Pascal’s a tricky target. He holds his hands very low, and it’s naturally tempting for Diaconu to load up and go headhunting with bombs. However, Pascal’s excellent reflexes allow him to slip most of what’s aimed upstairs.

This was very much the case in the first fight. Diaconu was fairly adept at cutting off the ring, and there were plenty of times when he managed to work his way into punching range. However, all too often, these opportunities went for not, as he loaded up with either a big hook or overhand right, only to have Pascal either duck under the shot, or slide away to the side.

It’s a lot more difficult to slip shots aimed at the mid-section, and that’s where Diaconu should be focusing more of his attack. When he chose to throw shots to the body, he was often successful – only he didn’t do so nearly enough, especially early in the fight.

An example of one of these wasted chances happened with 1:40 to go in the 2nd round. With Pascal circling to his left on the outside, Diaconu slowly edged forward, eventually coming well into range with Pascal’s back to the ropes. Diaconu feinted with a left hook, prompting Pascal to put his gloves up to block the shot. Instead of firing the hook, Diaconu fired a right hand, which Pascal easily ducked underneath of before grabbing a hold of Diaconu.

Had Diaconu feinted with the left hook, and drilled the right hand to the body, he almost certainly would have landed an effective shot.

This was typical of the action over the entire round, with Diaconu coming into range several times – loading up with big lead left hooks and overhand rights - and coming away empty.

2. Avoid standing around in the middle of the ring.

While circling on the perimeter, Pascal is waiting for the moment to strike, but he’s not really a slip and counter type of fighter. He’s looking for moments when he can take the lead, by jumping in with a quick combination, before sliding out of range – and most of his effective work in the fight was done in this manner.

Diaconu pressed the action for much of the bout, but there were still plenty of moments when he laid back in the middle of the ring. Perhaps he was trying to draw Pascal into an exchange, but when he did so, he almost always came off second best.

Diaconu needs to continuously press forward and force Pascal backwards. He doesn’t need to go crazy expending all his energy throwing tons of punches, but he simply can’t wait around in the middle of the ring. Even if he’s just steadily coming forward behind his jab – a punch he needs to use more often - he’ll accomplish the goal of moving Pascal backwards, and keeping the fight where he needs it to be. But each time he waits, he puts himself in danger of getting beaten to the punch. It’s these moments when the speed disparity is most glaring.

3. Use the jab more.

As alluded to in the point regarding body punching, when Pascal is moving on the outside and thinking defense, he’s very difficult to catch clean. His reflexes are first rate, and he’s nearly always able to avoid the first shot when it’s a big wild hook or overhand right.

Throwing the jab accomplishes a couple things.

It’s a straight shot, and even if it doesn’t score, it will occupy Pascal’s attention, and should increase the chances of a bigger follow-up shot landing.

It’s also a good defensive weapon. In his bout with Pascal, the key punch for Carl Froch was the jab. Now Diaconu doesn’t have the same kind of long jab that Froch does, but he can still use it to disrupt Pascal’s offensive rhythm.

4. Use the uppercut more often.

Against a fighter with good head movement, who's constantly slipping under shots, the uppercut is a valuable weapon - especially along the ropes.

Pascal can't simply duck underneath the shot.  It's worth nothing that one of the rare uppercuts that Diaconu threw in the first fight, lead to the shot that shook Pascal at the end of the 5th round. Pascal avoided the big left uppercut, only to move into range of Diaconu's follow-up right hand.

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All that being said - Diaconu might just need a little luck during one of those moments when Pascal opens up a little too recklessly when throwing a combination. If he can land a big shot in between one of Pascal's punches, anything can happen.

Or maybe Pascal's just too good.

We'll find out Friday night, in what's sure to be an exciting second chapter in front of another big crowd at Montreal's Bell Centre.

e-mail Andrew Fruman