By William Mackay: Mikkel Kessler (44-2, 33 KO’s) has been quite vocal about wanting to fight the winner of tonight’s Super Six tournament finals bout between WBC champion Carl Froch and WBA champion Andre Ward sometime in 2012, but does Kessler deserve the chance?

Kessler, 32, hasn’t done much since his narrow win over Froch last year, and spent a year out of the ring following that fight due to a reported eye injury he sustained in the tourney. There’s little doubt that Kessler was struggling in the tournament having lost badly to Ward in his first fight and then barely getting by Froch in his second fight of the tourney. Had Kessler stayed in the tournament he would have had to beat Allan Green in his next bout and then face Ward in the finals.

As beat up as Kessler was after the Froch fight, I think he would have had problems even beating Green. That would likely been a tough fight for Kessler, and clearly would have lost against to Ward in the finals. I think Kessler really doesn’t deserve to share the ring with the Super Six winner, because he hasn’t redeemed himself yet. I think Kessler would be better off facing the loser of the tournament and if he wins that fight then I feel he should get a shot at the Super Six tournament winner, but not immediately, no way.

Kessler is scheduled to face WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz on April 14th in Kessler’s home country of Denmark. Stieglitz is considered a paper champion in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans and this should be a winnable fight for Kessler. It’s disappointing that Kessler’s management is aiming him at what fans consider the weakest of the champions instead of someone that would have a chance of beating him.

Right now I have hard time seeing Kessler beating Froch, Ward or Lucian Bute. I think Kessler would even have serious problems against some of the top contenders like Anthony Dirrell and Sakio Bika.