Kessler: “I cannot lose”

By William Mackay: Former World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (42-2, 32 KO’s) goes into his next stage 2. Super Six fight against WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch badly in need of a win. Kessler was defeated in his last fight against Andre Ward in the stage 1 part of the Super Six tournament.

For Kessler, who came into the tournament as the favorite, the loss was a brutal shock for a lot of people, including Kessler.

However, Kessler will be facing Froch at hope in Denmark on April 24th, in Herning. In an article at Express.co, Kessler said “I respect Carl Froch and there will be no trash talk from our side, but this is an all-or-nothing fight and there can be only one winner-me. I will be cheered on by 10,000 Danes and for them, I cannot lose.”

Kessler clearly has his back against the wall in this fight, and needs to get this win to keep in the running for the tournament. As of now, the 30-year-old Kessler has zero points and is trailing Froch and Ward, who have two points each and Arthur Abraham, the Super six tournament leader with three points. Kessler will have a much slower opponent with Froch than he faced in the young and fast Ward.

This might turn out to be a bigger factor in Kessler’s favor than simply fighting in front of a huge Danish crowd of 10,000. Froch is very deliberate with his offense, easy to see what he’s throwing and wide a bad habit of telegraphing his punches. At the same time, Froch fights with his hands down by his waist most of the time. This is the type of opponent that Kessler traditionally has done very well against in the past.

While Froch may have a slight edge over Kessler in the power department, he doesn’t come close to Kessler in terms of boxing skills. Kessler is by far the better boxer with a superior jab, left hook and defensive ability. The only things that Froch brings into the ring is stamina, an ability to soak up punishment without going down and a huge heart.

Kessler shouldn’t be thinking knockout in this fight, because Froch’s chin is pretty good and he’ll likely be able to take a lot of abuse without going down. But that’s not to say that Froch can’t be hurt. As we saw in his last fight against Andre Dirrell in the Super Six stage 1 part of the tournament, Froch was staggered by Dirrell when he let his hands go in the 10th round and shook Froch up with a hard left hand.

We can only guess what would have happened to Froch if Dirrell had let his hands go more and fired more artillery at Froch in the other rounds. Kessler no doubt will be throwing a lot more punches than Dirrell did, and if Froch’s chin has been compromised by Dirrell in their last fight, then Kessler has the power to put Froch down and finish him off.

Kessler says “Froch is a great fighter with a fantastic chin, so I know how hard it is going to be to beat him. No one has managed so far in the professional ranks. I am not kidding myself how difficult it is going to be, but Froch is my type of fighter. He stands in the center of the ring like me and never takes a step backwards. That is the sort of fighter I have been knocking over since I became a professional.”

Kessler is absolutely correct. Froch is a slow straight up European fighter who Kessler does really well against. Froch doesn’t have the movement, hand speed or punch volume that Joe Calzaghe or Andre Ward possess. Without those weapons, Froch appears to be nothing more than another one of the types of fighters that Kessler typically wipes the deck with in his fights.

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