With little more than two weeks to go before the Super middleweight showdown between undefeated World Boxing Organization super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe (43-0, 32 KOs) and World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (39-0, 29 KOs) the big question that comes to mind for many is whether Calzaghe will have the power to keep the younger, stronger Kessler on the outside where he’s much less effective. The bout, which takes place at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, in Wales, will be a factor in the 35-year old Calzaghe’s favor, however, it’s not clear how much the crowd can assist Calzaghe in the way of his lack of power. Calzaghe, a fighter mainly noted for being an excellent slapper, has never had the kind of knockout power that Kessler possesses, and has been lucky up to this point in his career, only having to face mostly weaker, mediocre fighters.
Much has been made of the fact that Calzaghe has held onto the WBO super middleweight title for the past 10 years, but unknown to many fans is that the wins have come against weak opposition, much weaker than the top super middleweights that have recently risen to the top of the division. For Calzaghe, with his marginal punching power, a fight against Kessler couldn’t have come at the worst time for him in his career, because he’s clearly on the downward slope and doesn’t have more than a few good fights in him before he starts taking beatings – and suffering loses, if he continues to face tough opposition after he faces Kessler.
Calzaghe has recently said that his “slaps” will be enough to defeat Kessler. However, it doesn’t appear likely at this point that Calzaghe will be able to match up with the powerful Dane in that department, nor in any aspect of the offensive game, because Kessler just appears to the the superior fighter at this point, and his extra power sways it in his direction even more. True, there could be a shocking upset, the type like in Calzaghe’s fight with Jeff Lacy, but I seriously doubt it because Kessler has much more experience against top opposition than Lacy did previous to his fight with Calzaghe, and the tape on Kessler shows that he’s the real deal and not just hype like Lacy turned out to be.
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