By Scott Gilfoid: World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (42-1, 32 KO’s) will really be tested by Andre Ward (20-0, 13 KO’s) in their November 21st Super Six tournament fight and Kessler, the Viking, may come up short against the talented 25-year-old Ward. Kessler, 30, missed almost a year of action while taking care of management problems and when he came back recently, he looked like a completely different fighter as he struggled against Gusmyr Perdomo.

I guess it could be age, ring rust or the years of facing soft opponents that caused Kessler to look so awful. I don’t think it’s any one thing. I think it’s all of those things combined. Before Andre Ward, Jermain Taylor and Andre Dirrell emerged on the boxing scene, the super middleweight division was very poor.

Some people say that fighters would move up to that weight because they didn’t have the talent to fight at middleweight and it was a weight class where they could win an easy title against the mostly mediocre opponents and hold onto the title for a long period of time.

But that was in the old days before Dirrell, Taylor and Ward showed up. Now, the big three have come into town and are ready to take over the division and rule it with an iron fist. Kessler won’t be facing one of his soft opponents like Danilo Haussler and Dimitri Sartison on November 21st. Ward is a former 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist for the United States and he’s breezed through his competition since turning pro in 2004.

Ward doesn’t just beat his opponents. He annihilates them and either knocks them out or beats them in lopsided decisions where he wins every round of the fight with his amazing boxing ability. Recently, Ward made an example of super middleweight contender Edison Miranda, beating him by a lopsided 12 round decision, and winning every round of the fight.

Miranda is plenty tough and a huge puncher, yet Ward handled him like he was a little kitten. Kessler is going to have major problems against Ward. All the boxing fans and so-called boxing experts are going to have to reassess their ideas about Kessler being the best super middleweight in the division and the one that will be winning the Super Six tournament.

Kessler won’t win the tournament, because he’s going to be knocked out or badly beaten by Ward. Kessler might beat most of the other fighters, save for Dirrell, but he won’t win the tournament. But it’s good, through. When you have a fighter basically fighting a bunch of fighters that I’ve never even heard of, and of course beating them with ease, it gives a distorted picture about the fight.

Boxing fans are like under an impression that Kessler is nearly invincible based on fights against guys that I personally feel shouldn’t even be ranked in the top 15. It’s good that Kessler will finally be facing a quality fighter for a change, and I think the Dane is going to fall apart in the fight. It’s going to be an eye-opener and afterwards boxing fans will wonder how they could have been so fooled. I never was and I never will be. You got to have an eye for talent.