Did Ward ruin Kessler?
September 30th, 2010
By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBC/WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (43-2, 32 KO’s) recently dropped out of the Super Six tournament complaining about an eye problem. Kessler, 31, says he’s been having the eye problems since his brutal 11th round technical decision beat down at the hands of talented American Andre Ward (22-0, 13 KO’s) last year in November. Ward showed a masterful performance against Kessler, lancing him with hard jabs all night and knifing inside and punishing him with hard shots on the inside. It was like parent spanking a mere child, because Kessler wasn’t skilled enough to deal with Ward’s brilliant attacks.
Kessler is now out of the Super Six tournament, resting his bad eye and supposedly getting ready to take on the winner of the Super Six tourney next year when it ends. Kessler’s eye needs nine months of healing, but I don’t think Kessler will ever be the same fighter he once was from the beating he took from Ward in that fight. And I wouldn’t recommend that Kessler ever fight Ward again. I don’t think he should fight Ward, Andre Dirrell or guys like Arthur Abraham.
If Kessler insists on continuing his boxing career, then I think he needs to go back to fighting the kinds of guys that he’s been fighting his entire boxing career, such as Antoniy Mundine, Danilo Haussler, Dimitri Sartison, Librado Andrade and Manny Siaca. I think Kessler would do well against those fighters and he probably wouldn’t take punishment in beating them. That’s what my advice would be for him. He needs to stay away fighting the Super Six tournament winner, because that’s like going to be Ward or Dirrell, and those guys are much tougher than the guys Kessler has been fighting during his career.
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@Ringside
u seem 2 be a serious boxing fan and dont seem 2 be interested in a slagging match. I wonder if you would mind reading what I think and giving it a response?
I think Andre Ward is a real talent, and future p4p king in the making. I saw the Kessler fight and he (Ward) was suberb. I think Kessler was caught out by Wards speed and movement. However i dont think that would be the case a second time. I think Kessler would be ready next time and well prepared. Saying that I still think Ward would win a decision, but it would be a much harder/closer fight.
Andre Direll on the other hand I am not convinced is the real deal. I also watched the Direll vs Frotch fight and i’m afraid i gave it to Frotch. Reason being Direll ran the whole time, barely engaged and didnt land a telling shot all night. Direll has great hand speed but i’m not convinced he has the heart or desire. Some may not agree but I dont see him having enough power either, not against the best. (u could argue that Ward is not the hardest puncher, but my opinion is he has the heart and the talent 2 compensate).
I think AA would ko Direll in a rematch. Yes Direll was way out in front last time, but eventually AA would catch him and put him down. Plus after the serious, all be it illegal ko Direll suffered last time, how will he fair mentally stepping in with AA?
Thats my view, give me yours and i will reply. cheers
Euro champ:I’m so sorry you’re feelings are hurt. I wish all the luck in the world and the same with the fighters you root for.life is to short to get angry and sensitive over comments on the euro fighters. So let me see if I can help you out a little by getting you to understand . Euro fighters are the most protected,cuddled,pampered athletes in the world. This is why Kessler,and Abraham,were so easily beat up by ward and direll.these American kids are tough.
DID FROCH RUIN DIRRELL. HE MUST HAVE HES BEEN RUNNING EVER SCIENCE AND THE ABRAHAM ACT WAS INSANE.
You dont need an american coach to be a successful boxer or champ. FACT!
To be a good coach you need to be holistic, and be open to change and not so self-involved in your own teachings. Good coaches study the sport with an OCD approach and are open to new techniques and able to adapt to different fighters.
I’m sick of hearing “if so and so had this fighter he’d do this and that well the guys already been a champ and trains like a machine (Froch), and will be a champ again”. You cant win them all, boxing is to fickle.
RANT OVER
Before the ward fight, Kwssler barely fough in 18 months and looked terrible in the 2 fights he did have against limited opposition. Actually didn’t you actually write that yourself, you said he was completely shot?? Now it’s only after Ward…
Nah, Kessler has been looking less than impressive leading up to the tournament. His fight with Froch was good however. Ward is just that good.
Buttmaster Ward has headbutts on his side or he wouldn’t be winning as much as he does, and I don’t care who has a problem with that TRUE statement. Kessler ran into Calzaghe and Ward and didn’t do so well, but alot of that was the trainer. With Jimmy Montoya he had already improved in the Froch fight, and when he returns he may not clean out the division but he will certainly make some noise. Maybe not THE best, but close to it. Go back and look at the Andrade fight if you don’t think Kessler has boxing skill. Montoya will keep building off that.
Well Ward showed the Danes where Oakland was.almost a brutal shutout.It was hard to believe people thought Kessler was favored especialy after losing decisevly to Calzaghe.A Ward Calzaghe fight would have been interesting.The age gap for these two is too far.The future will tell how good ward is.I suspect on par withHopkins,we no longer can mention Dawson,as we are about to see B Hop lose another test of father time.
a ringside post without venom and meaness how far you have come !!!. now lets see what the euros have in their souls?is it love or sick?
Kessler,froch,and abraham should take a couple of agility classes and maybe it will help them improve their gracefulness in the future and get new coaches.I don’t know about Kessler though because he trashed olsen his coach of 20yrs for nothing.now if that is not a crybaby I don’t kno what is.wards coach Virgil hunter said he sees a good fighter in froch and would remake him into a future light heavy champ with brand new elements to his game. The euro coaches cannot teach their guys how to win against u.s.a competition.
According to Ringside Dirrell was set to pull out of the 6 and was going to announce it by now, yet nothing has been said yet, so we’re all still waiting.
If the clip that AA provided Dirrell was enough to give the kid problems down the track he’s better off out of boxing anyhow, as he takes a lot of shots to the back of his head because of his excessive ducking face to canvass.
I think ward and Calzaghe exposed his flatfooted brawling style that lacks a multi dimentional boxing style.He ruined his title defense,and ruined his confidence again.but fought bravely and arguably against Froch,who has a decent resume,and still a chance in the super six.
I’d say Kessler has never been the same since his loss to JC, he lost a lot of momentum in his career after that. Thoughts?????
@ RINGSIDE-DR. BLACK HAS A FREE CLINIC IN THE BOWLS OF OAKLAND.YOUR VERY FAMILAR WITH THE AERA ITS KNOWN AS FAIRY TOWM.THE DR. CAN SLIP IT TO YOU ALONG WITH SOME VIAGRA. SO YOU CAN GET ALL THIS SOFTNESS OFF YOUR MIND. THE DR. BEING ONE LIKE YOU IS THERE FOR YOU AND YOUR KIND.
blah blah blah,i heard it all before about talented direll and ward,enough of that allready dude!
For all the abuse Europeans are having piled on them it’s a valid point that it required the belts of two Europeans to give this tournament any credibility.
Both Froch and Kessler, who’s fight was easily the most entertaining so far willingly pooled their belts knowing there was a good chance they would lose them, it’s petulant to start abusing guys who made this tourney happen, and to call them soft when it’s blatantly obvious they aren’t is pathetic and childish, especially when currently the only person to have stood in the middle of the ring crying like a newborn baby was an American.
Ward did run a clinic on Kessler, but although it was a clininc it wasn’t an arse whipping. Kesslers cuts were brought about by completely dirty tactics, Ward came in repeatedly with his head hoping to open the cuts up and he was allowed to do it repeatedly.
I found it hard to watch Ward being allowed to employ such underhand tactics when he clearly already had Kesslers number. I wouldn’t say Kessler was soft, for all his skill Ward was unable to even put him down and the fight was only stopped because Ward had opened cuts by changing in with his forehead.
Ward is a great boxer, there’s no denying that, I just can’t see why he’s such a dirty fighter when he doesn’t need to be.
I would say the epitome of soft is a guy like Dirrell, a guy who constantly falls on the floor, who complains to the referee non stop then cries like a girl when he gets dropped.
Dirrell is never going to dominate any division because he’s not intimidating, he’s quick but not fearsome, he’s fast but not the raw talent Gilfoid makes out, even his “matrix” act against the ropes is illegal because he ducks face to canvass the whole time, it’s almost comical watching him genuinely think he’s slick, when the reality is he’s just cheating.
Yeah they are old and over the hill, they should have pulled the plug a long time ago, but as an american its better to spoil the sport with your circus-shows and cartoon fights. Luckily Kessler hasn’t reached that hill and if we ever get to see ward fight outside of oracle arena against Kessler, I belive Kessler will redeem himself once more. By the way, Direll got scared when abraham turned on the heat and then he made his pathetic SISSIE act, but hey its probably its better than ending up like american superstar Jermain Taylor
Yeah he lost to Calzaghe, but no shame in that. Jones and Hopkins did the same thing right after Kessler. Ward did put on a great performance, but he also got away with a lot of fauls he wouldn’t if the fight was on neutral ground. Ward himself said that kessler is one of the toughest guys he faced, because his ability to make a comeback. But hey, I guess you guys know better than Ward… Froch didn’t ruin kessler, he just ruined his own oversized ego by coming to Denmark and get his ass kicked…
scott you really do talk rubbish kessler looked flat in the ward fight and when he fought froch he looked like a different fighter infact i would go so far as to say he looked the best he had ever looked that may well have something to do with froch not being as good as ward that i do agree with but to say that he looked better in that fight is just not true and the only reason you would say that is to big up wards win ward fought a great fight but really who had kessler fought since he lost to calzaghe really now thats where the damage was done to kessler and if calzaghe was still around scott thats exactly what ward would get as well smashed
Ward mearly ruffed Kessler up and out sped him, Froch ruined Kessler, trust me. Peace x
scott im not picking up much in the way of spanking but there seems to be a great many comments about head butting. why not write” the art of the butt” in relation to your boy ward.
I agree that a ward-kessler 2 on neutral ground would be a different story. He will come back strong, like he did against Froch.
AFTER FROCH OR ABRAHAM SPANK WARD LIKE A PARENT SPANKING A MERE CHILD. WARD WILL CRY LIKE DIRRELL AND BE PLENTY SOFT ENOUGH FOR A KESSLER RE-MATCH. IN A RE-MATCH IN A NEUTRAL SETTING WARD WILL MEET A CHILD WHOS GROWN UP AND NOW THE ONE DOING THE SPANKING.
Ward ruined Kessler with his head butting beat down.
A MAN WHO LIVES HIS LIFE VICARIOUSLY THRU ANOTHER IS LESS A MAN AND AS HIS OBSESSION GROWS:SO DEMINISHES HIS SELF WORTH IN DIRECT AND EQUAL PROPORTION .RINGSIDE YOUR UNHEALTHY ATTACHMENT IS SICK AND SAD.
Scott, what a load of rubbish! Kessler wasn’t 75% against Froch compared to what he was against Ward. It was the other way around. Kessler was fit and trim against Froch whereas he just wasn’t ready for Ward because of inactivity. I’ll admit that he got hit too many times by Froch, but that was partly because of strategy – he knew that Froch didn’t like to be pressured, so he took some chances in that fight. Yes, Kessler is probably not quite what he was 3 years ago, but he’s not nearly as finished as you make it seem.
You’re right Scott. Calzaghe exposed and ruined Kessler and Ward finished what was left of Kessler. Now Kessler is finished. He should retire. I think he will get beaten by all the Super Six fighters now including Green and Johnson.
Wow Scott, what a dumbass comment “It was like parent spanking a mere child”, so parrents use numerous headbutts on their kids now? Ward said that Kessler probably wasn’t the most talented guy he ever faced, but the toughest. Because Kessler came back and reclaimed a belt 3 times and I strongly belive that he will do it again.
Those hard shots on the insde were headbutts. He did probably ruin kesslers eyes with his head rather than his fists.
Bern:ward hasn’t lost a fight since he was twelve years old.now are you saying that since then after what ward himself says is at least 130 fights that he would’ve been tested? He beat 3 world champions and 1 silver medalest to win gold spotting weight(he was a middleweight) height,age,experience. His trainer virgil hunter said that Kessler had more fights but ward was the one who was battle tested,and battle hardened. That turned out to be the case in the fight with Kessler. The fact is he was not only good enough,he wasn’t tough enough. Kessler fans are not true fight fans because they are the true cryers&whiners and other than a few can’t acknowledge facts which is the backbone of these statements concerning ward.he has been tested over and over.
Calzaghe broke Kessler’s zero and his spirit, not Ward. Ward simply finished the job and had the benefit of Calzaghe’s exposure of Kessler’s limitations.
Calzaghe exposed Kesslar and Ward wrote him off the map!
I am danish and I admit, that Kessler really never learnt to fight at the level that is necessary if you want to be at absolute elite level! Kessler was overprotected, didnt learn real survival tricks (The ones you can’t read in a instructionbook for boxing). Kessler is a boxer, but not a real FIGHTER. He is stiff and never learnt to slip punches and bob and weave.
I think Calzaghe ruined Kessler, Ward just finished him off
I would love to see Ward tested properly so we can see what he has got
Unbelievable, the shameless lengths you go. I’m actually beginning to respect your work, I can picture you and your mate Ringside P*ssing yourselves laughing. Well done you two, you nearly had a bite, but I have no doubt you will convince other morons on here and I will be dragged into futile debate. Your articles are lethal!
PS. Most of the fans that are against Ward & Dirrell accept they have massive talent, they just can’t accept the tactics they use to steal fights. When they grow into men and actually win a fight with their obvious talent, will back them, after all fighters with that much talent shouldn’t need acting and head butts…!?
you relay are getting boring now you idiot look at your lack of comments !!!
Could be that all those headbutts in the face didn’t do Kessler much good either.
Scott you got that right.ward not only beat kessler physically he destroyed him mentally and spiritually. Poor mikkell he just never expected a beating that in all fairness he took like a man. So let’s let him be comfortable and get his rest.why not let him enjoy his time off from the rigors of training and the demands put on his mind.