By Eric Thomas: In the latest boxing news, former WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (39-1, 29 KOs) is reportedly on WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik’s short list of future opponents that he would like to fight. Apparently, Pavlik’s promoter Bob Arum recently said that Kessler is one of Pavlik’s potential opponents in the future, that he is one of the best fighters in the super middleweight division (other than Joe Calzaghe) and that Pavlik prefers to fight impressive opponents like Kessler. For his part, Kessler has also a lot of respect for Pavlik, having seen his fight with Jermain Taylor and likes his style of fighting and would be interested in fighting him in the future.
However, Kessler still has to get through this Saturday’s bout with Dimitri Sartison (22-0, 14 KOs), whom he’s fighting for the vacant WBA super middleweight title at the Brondby hallen, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Kessler is coming off a loss to Joe Calzaghe on November 3rd.
Kessler is expected to win handily over the inexperienced Sartison, a German based fighter originally from Kazakhstan, with good power and even better boxing skills. Unfortunately for Sartison, he’s facing the toughest fight of his career without having had any opponents even marginally close to being as good as Kessler. That’s likely going to mean trouble for Sartison, who will be forced to deal with a fighter with far more boxing ability than what Sartison has faced since turning professional in 2003.
For Kessler’s part, he’s in a position that even if he does defeat (which is what is expected of him) Sartison this Saturday in Copenhagen, Kessler is likely to find himself in the position of facing a mostly dull division, filled with fighters that are unknown to the boxing public at large, aside from Edison Miranda, and ones that the fans could care less about watching. At the same time, Kessler’s will receive much less for facing these fighters, far less than what he received in his recent fight with Calzaghe in November. Kessler has already turned down a fight with Miranda, though in fairness to Kessler, there was no title on the line, which made the fight much less appealing to him that it might be otherwise.
Miranda, though, may end up forcing the issue. Presently, he’s rated #2 in the WBA, meaning that whether Kessler wants to fight him or not, he’ll have no choice if he wants to hold onto his WBA title. Knowing him, he’ll fight rather than relinquish his belt. A fight with Miranda, as good as it might be, would be nothing near what a bout with Pavlik would bring in for Kessler as far as cash rewards goes. Pavlik, with his three big wins over Edison Miranda and Jermain Taylor in 2007-2008, including his recent win over Gary Lockett, has made him a huge star in boxing, and the fighter that most middleweights/super middleweights want to fight.
This would be the most ideal fight for kessler, a classic fight between the boxer/puncher Kessler vs. the pure slugger Pavlik. As of now, I’d have to rate Kessler as the superior fighter in a fight between them, as Kessler moves a lot, rarely staying in one place and uses his jab frequently. Indeed, he’s a complete departure from all of Pavlik’s recent fights, which have come mostly against crude sluggers, ones that were perfect for Pavlik’s high pressure style of fighting. Though Taylor was more of a boxer, at least he has the skills to be a good boxer, he failed to use them adequately against Pavlik in their two bouts in 2007.
Instead, Taylor often chose to slug it out with Pavlik, which as one would guess, favored Pavlik with his better power. Kessler, however, defends well, is hard to hit due to his head & foot movement and his ability to block punches, and has very good hand speed. From what I’ve seen of Kessler, he’s a more advanced fighter with better skills than what Pavlik has shown up to this point in his boxing career.
I think this would be an embarrassing fight for Pavlik, who would find himself over his head, trying to chase down a fighter that refuses to stand and trade shots with him. It would be like watching a class fighter from the past attempting to fighter a boxer/puncher like Muhammed Ali. It just wouldn’t happen, and it end up in a one-sided boxing lesson.