By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (45-2, 34 KO’s) will be trying to recapture one of his old WBA 168 lb title belts on December 8th against World Boxing Association champion Brian Magee (36-4-1, 25 KO’s) at the BOXEN, Herning, Denmark.

This is really going to be a tough ask for the soon to be 34-year-old Kessler because he’s not been all that active in recent years, and judging by his last performance against Allan Green last May, Kessler looks like his chin hasn’t been helped with all the time away from boxing.

Kessler needs this belt so that it can open the doors for him for bigger fighters against the like of WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham and IBF champion Carl Froch. Having a belt in his possession will no doubt help get Kessler a big boost when it comes time to negotiate a fight. There’s a big different when negotiating from a position of equality with a title belt and negotiating from a position of weakness as a mere challenger. Kessler wants the WBA belt from Magee so that he can get those bigger money fights where he can get some good cash.

Magee, 37, is standing in Kessler’s way and he’s not about lay down for Kessler and make it easy. Magee has dramatically improved in his last two fights, and punching with more power and showing better skills than he had earlier in his career. I guess you can call Magee a late bloomer, because he’s definitely turned things around completely with his career and he’s looking incredible. In his last two fights Magee has beaten Jaime Barboza and Rudy Markussen. He’s looked nothing short of sensational in both fights.

Here’s the areas where I see Magee as having advantages over Kessler:

* Poise
* Power
* Speed
* Mental strength
* Adaptability
* Jab
* Ring mobility
* Boxing IQ
* Trainer
* Ability to take pain

Here’s where I see Kessler as having the advantage:

* Experience
* Hometown advantage

I see Magee walking Kessler down and really punishing him with power shots in this fight. Kessler will have the hometown advantage but that’s not going to be enough to turn back Magee because he’s got too much talent and he’s not going to quit like a dog for Kessler just because several thousand Danes are cheering Kessler on. Magee is going to go for Kessler’s head and look to hurt him, and possibly cut him up the same way that talented American Andre Ward did in his dominating 11th round technical decision win in 2009. Kessler seems to get down on himself when he’s not in front, and he appears to get discouraged. It’s going to be on Magee to put Kessler in that place so that he might mentally crumble under the pressure from Magee.

Prediction: Magee TKO 10 Kessler