Kessler vs. Ward: Andre’s Speed Will Be Too Much for Mikkel

By Scott Gilfoid: World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler has the bad luck of facing American Andre Ward in his first fight in the Super Six tournament next month on November 21st, at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. It’s a really tough match-up for the 30-year-old Kessler, coming at a bad time for the Danish fighter who just recently fought his first bout in over a year. To say that Kessler looked rusty would be kind. He looked old, slow and defensively weak.

I don’t even know what to think about Kessler after seeing how badly he performed against Gusmyr Perdomo, the Venezuelan challenger. That was a bad performance and I don’t know that it’s all from ring rust. I think Kessler has gotten a little old on us and is starting to show his years all of a sudden. He’s 30, and that’s old for some fighters. Kessler may not have any gray hair on top of his short mop, but he doesn’t need to. Sometimes old shows itself even when a fighter has zero gray.

They just get old overnight. Kessler is facing a tough, really tough, fighter in the young 25-year-old Ward. The American is a former 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist, and is perhaps the most perfect fighter in the super middleweight division. On defense, Ward can very hard to hit because of his ability to duck, lean away and block incoming shots.

That part of his game in itself is enough to make any fighter a great talent. Ward’s defensive ability may even be better than Floyd Mayweather Jr. and a prime Roy Jones. That’s how good Ward is on defense. But when you add to that Ward’s exceptional offensive ability, power and lightning fast punches, you have a fighter that is just out of this world in talent.

Yeah, I’m well aware that many of the European boxing fans see Kessler as being nearly infallible, and the one who they feel will easily win the Super Six tournament. But I also suspect that most of those same European boxing fans have only see a glimpse of any of Ward’s fights, so they’re coming from a place of ignorance about him. I can accept that. Education comes from experience.

A person can’t learn until they’ve witnessed a fighter first hand and seen how good or bad they are. Once they’ve seen that fighter, only then can they make their analysis of how good they are. So for them, I see them all as potential pupils, waiting to have their rigid beliefs shattered and changed on November 21st. Ward will turn their upside beliefs about him and Kessler and bring them the right side around so that they see things clearly.

Ward will beat Kessler, beat him even worse than Joe Calzaghe did. Kessler was defeated by a 12 round decision by Calzaghe, losing by four rounds on the scorecards of the judges. Ward will make that look like child’s play by beating Kessler by 10 rounds to 2. That’s my prediction. I don’t think Ward will stop Kessler because Mikkel has too good of a chin, but I do see this as a one-sided fight all you’ll ever see.

Kessler is still a good fighter and will probably beat every other fighter in the Super Six tourney, with the exception of Andre Dirrell, but I think Kessler’s time has past. The younger fighters have caught up and surpassed Kessler in skill. Initially, it will be Dirrell and Ward, but soon you will see a number of other up coming super middleweight contenders who will be better than him as well.

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