Kessler-Ward: Is Mikkel too Basic to beat Andre?

By Boxing News - 11/05/2009 - Comments

kessler343243By Scott Gilfoid: World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (42-1, 32 KO’s) is a good fighter there’s no question about that, but he might be too basic to beat top rated American challenger Andre Ward (20-0, 13 KO’s) in their Super Six bout on November 21st, at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. That’s not to take anything away from the 30-year-old Kessler for his accomplishments. He’s had a great run during his career, beating fighters like Anthony Mundine, Dimitri Sartison, Librado Andrade, Markus Beyer and Eric Lucas.

But Kessler’s run is about to be interrupted in his battle against the 25-year-old Ward on November 21st. The reason for Kessler’s problems with Ward will be because of Kessler’s old fashioned style of fighting. It’s a good style for Kessler and has served him well against good fighters since he turned pro 11 years ago. However, Kessler hasn’t fought as complete a fighter as Ward, and he’s going to get badly exposed by the American.

Kessler was already beaten decisively by Joe Calzaghe in November 2007. Calzaghe took advantage of Kessler’s simple fighting style by going right at him and hitting him with flurries. Kessler, who is more or less a one at a time puncher, couldn’t match the enormous work rate of Calzaghe and was simply outworked in a rather dull fight.

The loss has been forgotten by many boxing fans, who now consider Kessler the best fighter in the sport for some reason. I don’t see Kessler as the best, though. I’ve kept my eye on all the fighters in the super middleweight division, and have noticed several of them that have caught up to Kessler in terms of talent and in my view are a considerably better than him. Ward is one of the fighters, Andre Dirrell is another and Canadian based Romanian Lucian Bute is the third fighter.

These three boxers are the perfect fighters in the super middleweight division and who I see as a level above Kessler in talent. I think Kessler has the physical talent to improve still, but he would have to change his simple style of fighting and mix it a lot more movement and combinations to beat fighters like Ward, Dirrell and Bute. That’s probably not going to change at this point. Kessler is 30, and seems set in his ways style-wise. If anything, we’ll see Kessler probably going down hill by the time the Super Six tournament is over.

Ward knows Kessler’s style, seen that he doesn’t move well and that he tends to limit his punching ability by fighting out of a wide stance. Ward will see that he can easily overwhelm Kessler with punches from different angles and get the better of him because of his boxed in stance and his inability to throw combinations at the same rate that the quicker Ward can throw them.

Kessler has done next to nothing since being beaten by Calzaghe in 2007. He’s fought three times, beating some decent fighters in Sartison, Danilo Haussler and Gusmyr Perdomo. Those are good fighters, but clearly not in the class of Ward, Dirrell, Bute or Calzaghe. Kessler hasn’t had a test in a long time, and the year off from boxing certainly didn’t help his skills any.

The more I look at the Ward-Kessler fight, the more I see it as a 12 round shutout for Ward. I originally thought that Kessler might be able to steal a round or two, but now I see this as a one-sided fight with Ward winning every round. This will be like another one of Ward’s recent lopsided victories over Edison Miranda and Henry Buchanan.



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