Despite dropping the local in round six, Pascua lost a ten-round split decision to lose his condition as an undefeated fighter.
[2] Pascua followed that first defeat with three wins in a row, over Triffon Torralba, Romy Austria and Jun Altarejos but then was surprisingly beaten by 0–1 Paul Badilla[3] and by Rolando Protacio; these losses were both on points as Pascua lost to Badilla by ten round unanimous decision and to Protacio by eight rounds unanimous decision.
Pascua won 5 of his next six bouts, the exception being a loss by ten round unanimous decision at the hands of Napa Kiatwanchai, to become ranked by the WBC.
Gonzalez was undefeated and untied in 30 bouts and was being considered for an unification super fight with the equally undefeated International Boxing Federation world champion Michael Carbajal, but Pascua, who only had 8 knockout wins among his 24 victories in 29 fights and was not considered a very hard puncher, caused an upset when he dethroned the world champion by a stirring, sixth-round knockout to win the WBC light-flyweight title.
[2] After a fight in Japan in which Pascua defeated Hiroshi Kobayashi (an 8 wins, 8 losses and 1 tie boxer not to be confused with an earlier world champion boxer of the same name) by ten rounds unanimous decision on October 15, 1993, in Morioka, Pascua was once again ranked worldwide, this time by the IBF, and allowed to challenge for a world title, this time the IBF super-flyweight title which at the time was held by Mexican Julio Cesar Borboa, 20 wins and 4 losses coming into their fight.