The WBA Will Keep Danilo Haussler as Mandatory For Mikkel Kessler

By Boxing News - 07/04/2008 - Comments

kessler356464.jpgBy William MacKay: WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (40-1, 30 KOs) got a bit of bad news yesterday, when the WBA denied his team’s protest to withdraw Danilo Haussler (29-3-1, 7 KOs) as his mandatory challenger because it would be a gross mismatch. Granted, it was a long shot, at best, for Kessler’s team to win such an appeal for this was an usual appeal to be sure, and if it had been granted, one could imagine more of these types of appeals occurring in the future, used by fighters trying to get of facing either a very dangerous or, in the case of Haussler, a fighter with few boxing skills and not well known to most fans.

Kessler had an offer made to him earlier in the year to face the dangerous but flawed Edison Miranda, but turned it down, instead wanting more to fight for the WBA super middleweight belt. At the time, the belt was held by Anthony Mundine, a fighter that Kessler had previously beaten in a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision in June 2005. A fight against Mundine would have been perfect for Kessler, who would have received a good payday while beating Mundine, a popular fighter. However, Mundine backed out, giving up the WBA title to get a better payday against Sam Soliman.

This left Kessler with the disappointing option of having to face Dimitri Sartison, a hard-punching, little-known fighter that few fans had ever heard of. After a first round scare in which Kessler was staggered by a right hand from Sartison, he pretty much dominated him over the course of the rest of the bout, eventually stopping him in the 12th round. As it stands, however, Sartison is typical of the fighters in the WBA super middleweight division, mostly unknown, with little in the way of boxing skills are ability, and with inflated records.

Kessler wanted the title, yet now that he’s got it he’s realizing that there are few real big-named opponents in the division for which to face. Sure, he can bypass a fighter or two, but even then there are really few popular fighters even worth fighting. As sad as it may seem, the best that Kessler has to hope for in the super middleweight division is fights against the likes of Allan Green, Jean Pascal, Denis Inkin, Carl Froch and Jeff Lacy.

None of them are particularly popular, aside from Lacy, and he’s not the same fighter he was two years ago, neither in ability nor in terms of popularity with boxing fans. What Kessler needs to do, and do quickly, is vacate his worthless super middleweight title, and focus on moving up to the light heavyweight division where he can seek out bouts against much more popular fighters like Antonio Tarver, Chad Dawson, Roy Jones Jr. and Glen Johnson.

I think he could easily beat all of them, and would make much more money in a fight with any of them than by facing the low quality opposition that’s currently fighting in the super middleweight division. It wouldn’t be hard for Kessler to make the light heavyweight division, as he would only have to gain a mere seven bouts and he’d be right at the 175 pound light heavyweight weigh limit. Certainly Kessler can stay in the super middleweight division, stunting his growth as a fighter, wasting time and ruling over a dull division, but it would limit dramatically how much money he can make as a fighter.

If he chooses to stay, he might as well get used to facing more fighters like Haussler and learn to like them because, after all, that’s pretty much all that’s there. Frankly, I think he’s become kind of spoiled since getting his big payday against Calzaghe in 2007. It’s got to be hard for him to go from a big money, high visibility bout against Calzaghe to that of a fight against someone like Haussler, whose not even popular in his native Germany.