By Scott Gilfoid: After 11 years of fighting as a pro, super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (41-1, 31 KOs) has fought frighteningly mediocre competition consisting of a whole slew of fighters that I’ve frankly never heard of in my life. I had hopes that Kessler would start stepping it up after his fighting with Joe Calzaghe in 2007, but since then Kessler has continued fighting soft opponents and failed to step it up against a quality fighter like IBF light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson.
It isn’t like he doesn’t have the chance, because Dawson is very much interested in fighting Kessler and would be willing to move down to 168 to take a fight with him. However, Kessler doesn’t appear eager to fight him and is instead going after Mads Larsen, a 36 year-old fighter who left his best days in the super middleweight division behind him six years ago in 2003.
The thought of Kessler fighting someone like Larsen is more than a little off putting as far as I’m concerned. I’m just wondering when Kessler is going to fight a live body, because he seems like he’s following the standard that Calzaghe set in choosing opponents for his career.
At this rate, Kessler may be able to fight another nine years and remain with his one sole loss on his record from the Calzaghe fight. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind a fighter beating a scrub now and then, but in the case of Kessler he has beaten far too many lower level guys from the way I see it. Kessler is rumored to be fighting on March 14th in the U.S. against a still to be named opponent.
Normally, this would be good chance for Kessler to try and show what he’s worth by fighting a good opponent, but I’m not counting on it happening. If he’s brave, he’ll fight someone good like Andre Ward or Andre Dirrell. I see both of them better than any of the top super middleweights in the division, even though neither of them are currently title holders.
They will be in time, believe me. Another good opponent would be Jermain Taylor, but unfortunately he’s all but set to fight Carl Froch on April 25th, making Taylor unavailable for a fight against Kessler. Heck, I’d settle for Sakio Bika rather than see Kessler face another easy Euro fighter like Dimitri Sartison, Danilo Haussler or Markus Beyer again.
Bika has been getting better and better in the past couple of years since losing fights to Calzaghe and Lucian Bute. I doubt he’d beat Kessler but he’d still make him work hard in getting a win. I doubt Kessler would want to fight Dirrell, Ward or Allan Green, because each of them would bring a lot of power, speed and elusiveness to the table and Kessler couldn’t get away with sitting back and jabbing all fight long like he usually does.
I see Dirrell and Ward not only beating Kessler, but dominating him in every round. In order to beat good fighters like them, he’s going to have to show a lot more than what he’s done in his career. He might not have it in him, but it would be good to finally see him in with a quality opponent for a change.
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