Andre Ward: Kessler should keep fighting if his body lets him

By Boxing News - 05/25/2013 - Comments

kessler564By Allan Fox: Unbeaten Andre Ward doesn’t think Mikkel Kessler (46-3, 35 KO’s) should retire after his close 12 round unanimous decision loss tonight against IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch in London.

Ward thinks Kessler fought a good fight but that he didn’t throw enough punches in the early rounds of the fight, and put himself in a spot where he had to rally hard just to catch up to Froch.

Ward said after the fight about whether Kessler should retire or still fight: “If he wants to and he can physically hold up, I think he should fight on.”

Kessler is still good enough to beat the WBO champion Robert Stieglitz if he wants to target that champion, and he probably would have beaten Froch if he had started earlier in pushing the fight to him.

A rematch with Froch isn’t out of the question, but it might be difficult for Kessler to get another fight with Froch if he chooses to go in another direction. If Froch decides to fight Ward, Bernard Hopkins and then someone like Lucian Bute again, it’s doubtful Kessler will get another chance. The only way they do that fight is for the money.

An ideal title for Kessler to go after is the WBC belt. Sakio Bika and Marco Antonio Periban are fighting for the vacant title stripped from Ward next month and Kessler would do well against either of those guys as long as he fights with more aggression than he showed tonight. Bika will probably win that fight, and Kessler would match up really well against him.

Again, Kessler would have to be a lot busier against Bika than he was against Froch because he won’t beat Bika by hanging on the outside giving away the first half of the fight. Kessler would have to be more aggressive because Bika would be attacking him with power shots the entire fight. It wouldn’t be just jabs that Kessler would be dealing with from Bika.



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