By Jason Kim: Former super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (44-2, 33 KO’s) had proven himself that he was one of the best fighters in the world last year after coming back from a loss to Andre Ward in 2009 to defeat WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch by a 12 round decision.

However, Kessler pulled out of the Super Six tourney shortly after that and didn’t fight again for over a year until making a comeback in June in beating Mehdi Boudla by a 6th round stoppage.

Kessler is now taking a step up in class in taking on WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (40-2, 23 KO’s) on November 5th at the Parken in Copenhagen, Denmark. Kessler wants to win that fight so he can be considered one of the best fighters in the division. He also wants to to take on the better fighters in the division such as Froch, Ward and Lucian Bute.

Stieglitz is a lot better than Kessler’s last opponent and has power along the same lines as Ward and Froch. He can definitely punch and if Kessler isn’t careful, he could end up having to really scrap hard to get a win against Stieglitz. The last thing that Kessler wants or needs right now is to take a lot of punishment against Stieglitz, because Kessler wants to be fresh when he gets the bigger money fights in the future.

On paper, Stieglitz would seem to be over-matched in this fight, as he doesn’t have Kessler’s great jab, left hook or right hand. But Stieglitz does punch plenty hard and if he is able to find a home for his right hands and left hooks, he could mess things up for Kessler and stop him from moving forward towards rematches against Froch and Ward. Kessler needs to stay at a distance and use his jab and try not to get into any unnecessary exchanges with Stieglitz.