Kessler vs. Ward Super Six Preview

By Williams Mackay: On November 21st, WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler will be facing American Andre Ward in the Super Six tournament at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. This could turn out to be one of the best match-ups of the entire Super Six tourney, because it pits too hard hitting fighters with extraordinary boxing skills and great defensive abilities. Ward, 25, isn’t considered to be one of the finalists in the tourney, but he could create a stir and some momentum if he can pull an upset over the 30-year-old Kessler in their fight.

Ward will have the home town advantage in the fight, as he was raised and still lives in Oakland, California. This will obviously give Ward a big boost in this fight because Ward fights on emotion at times and seems to do really well when being cheered on by his home town crowd. Kessler will be entering a hostile environment because he’s not too well known in the U.S. outside of hardcore boxing fans.

Besides the home town advantage, Ward has the better hand speed, and counter punching ability going for him in this fight. Ward’s quickness may allow him to get the better of Kessler at close range. Joe Calzaghe showed that Kessler has problems against fighters with fast hands, as Calzaghe was able to overwhelm Kessler with flurries and keep him on defense where he was less able to get his shots off.

Ward will need to go at Kessler, throwing fast shots and not giving Kessler the time needed for him to throw his own power punches. Kessler has the advantage in experience having faced Calzaghe, Anthony Mundine, Librado Andrade and several other good opponents. However, Ward is perhaps the best fighter that Kessler will have faced, other than Calzaghe, and it will be a big test for Kessler to see if he can handle Ward’s raw skills.

This isn’t going to be a fight in which Kessler is able to stand on the outside and dominate the action with his jab, left hook and right hand. He’s going to have to come up with some more tools than this if he wants to beat a talented fighter like Ward. If Kessler limits his offense to a small number of punches, Ward will figure him out quickly and counteract what he’s doing and make him pay. Ward is really good at figuring out his opponents’ weakness and then going right at it.

Kessler will have to show some more looks and have a plan B to use if Ward starts to dominate the fight. This is a fight that Kessler can find himself falling behind really quickly if he doesn’t come out fast and have a number of different looks to use against Ward. This is a much tougher fight than what Kessler has had in the past, maybe even tougher than the Calzaghe fight because of Ward’s better power.

Ward will be fighting with a lot of energy because of his youth, talent and the home crowd that will be backing him. Kessler is going to have to be really sharp if he can negate Ward’s plusses. I don’t that he can, to be honest. I think Kessler is going to fall hopelessly behind to the point where he’ll need a knockout to win. That’s won’t happen. Look for Ward to win the fight by a substantial 12 round decision.

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