Bosse won his boxing debut with a second-round knockout over Julio Cuello Cabrera in February, but authorities in Quebec began investigating Bosse and his manager David Fontaine’s connection to “criminal elements” in Montreal sometime after his debut.
Bosse and Pascal are major combat sports stars in Quebec. The 36 year-old Bosse (12-2 in MMA; 1-0 in boxing) retired from MMA in 2016 after a 2-1 UFC run that included bonus-winning performances against Sean O'Connell and James Te Huna. Pascal (32-5-1) is a former WBC, IBO and Ring Magazine lineal light heavyweight champion, holding those titles from 2009 to 2011. As an amateur, the Haitian-Canadian represented Canada as a middleweight in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, as well as winning the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2002.
“The Boss” claims that he doesn’t need to fight or box professionally anymore, as the French-Canadian works full-time as a firefighter and owns his own woodcutting company. Meanwhile, the 35 year-old former boxing champion, who hung up the gloves last December, was lured out of that brief retirement after a social media campaign by Bosse to put together an all-Canadian crossover superfight with him.
Bosse has maintained his complete innocence; it remains to be seen whether he will receive his boxing license in time to fight Pascal on July 20.