Mikkel Kessler vs. Robert Stieglitz on April 14th

By Boxing News - 11/22/2011 - Comments

Image: Mikkel Kessler vs. Robert Stieglitz on April 14thBy Allen Fox: The previously scheduled November 5th fight between WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (40-2, 23 KO’s) and Mikkel Kessler (44-2, 33 KO’s) has a new date of April 14th at the Parken, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Kessler, 32, injured his hand and couldn’t make the November date. However, he’s ready to fight Stieglitz in April, hopefully. Kessler has been out of action since June of this year and by the time he fights in April of next year, if he makes the fight that is, Kessler will have only fought once in the past two years.

He might be better off taking a tune-up fight before facing Stiegliz for his paper title. Kessler’s last fight was against little known Mehdi Bouadla, whom he stopped in the 6th round. Before that, Kessler defeated Carl Froch by a 12 round decision last year in April 2010. Kessler was forced to exit the Super Six tournament after that fight due to damage he sustained to his left eye in his loss to Andre Ward in November 2009.

The eye is now healed but Kessler has lost a lot of time with his career. The latest injury is even more of a setback for him. Kessler would be better off skipping the Stieglitz fight and going after a better fighter like Froch, Ward or Lucian Bute. Kessler wants the WBO strap, though, which could give him a better cut of the revenue in setting up a unification but against either Bute or Ward.

Kessler should steer clear of Ward because the American showed that he really has Kessler’s number when they fought in 2009. Now two years older and incredibly rusty, I can’t see anything changing for Kessler for the better.



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