By Chris Thomas: According to Tv2 Sporten, WBA/WBC super middleweight Mikkel Kessler (39-1, 29 KOs) is reportedly ready to begin training once again after his operation on his right hand following his November 3rd, 2007 12-round unanimous decision loss to WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe at the Millennium Stadium, in Cardiff, Wales. “It’s going really well with it (the hand). The swelling has gone. Now I just need to test it very soon, and that’ll be quite interesting” Mikkel Kessler tells TV2 sporten.
The big question now is, of course, who Kessler, 28, will be fighting next. Kessler, ranked #3 in the WBC, #4 in both the WBA & WBO, will likely want a fairly tough opponent given his tendency to want to fight only the best opponents in the super middleweight division. Immediately, names like Edison Miranda, Jean Pascal, Allan Green, Alejandro Berrio, and Denis Inkin immediately come to mind as prospective opponents for Kessler. However, it’s highly questionable that any of them, aside from Berrio, who seems almost fearless, would want to step in the ring with Kessler. Even though he’s at potentially the weakest point in his career coming off both surgery and a disappointing defeat to Calzaghe, he is still considered a very dangerous opponent for anyone in the division.
His fight with Calzaghe was competitive, and it wasn’t as if he was completely dominated like Lacy was against Calzaghe in their March 2006 bout. However, there’s always the potential for a fighter to suffer lingering effects, mostly mental in nature, from such a disappointing loss as Kessler experienced against Calzaghe. That said, I don’t see Kessler as the type of person that would get down on himself and fight less than impressive as before. On the contrary, I see Kessler fighting even better, if that’s actually possible, by coming out even more determined to dominate this opponent. There wasn’t anything that he would have done differently to beat Calzaghe, other than trying to knock him out, for he didn’t have the handspeed or the punch output to match him in those departments.
However, he did fight Calzaghe better than any other opponent has in the past, which is something to be proud of. At this point, I see Kessler as being far too good for Miranda, Green, Pascal or Berrio. Of those opponents, I think Miranda and Green would be especially excellent choices for him to fight, because they would generate a lot of publicity for the fight, make a lot of money for Kessler, while at the same time get him motivated for his next bout. Knowing him, he won’t want to settle for less than a top fighter, because he’s been so used to fighting at a top level for the past several years.
He will, naturally, have to be careful with his hand, making sure that he doesn’t re-injure it in the course of beating his next opponent. He normally doesn’t go for a knockouts, instead focusing on boxing his opponents in submission, so hopefully nothing occurs during the bout that could possibly cause the injury to reoccur.