By Scott Gilfoid: World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler has officially pulled out of the Super Six tournament announcing it at a press conference today. Kessler said that he had been having vision problems dating back to his fight with Andre Ward last year and that the problems had lingered into his fight with Carl Froch in April and continued to plague him in sparring for his now cancelled fight with Allan Green, which was supposed to have taken place on September 25th next moth in Herning, Denmark. The treatment for the injury consists of rest only. Kessler cannot spar for nine months and won’t be available until April or May of next year. Kessler says “I will be back.” However, I’m not so certain he will. I think he’s finished.
Kessler hopes to fight the winner of the Super Six tournament next year. It’s unclear whether rest only will heal the injury or whether he’ll need more serious treatment for the injury. . Kessler says he’ll stay in shape so that he can be ready next year. However, Kessler may need to consider retirement because even if he does come back from the injury, the super middleweight division has gotten a lot better with talented fighters like Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell moving up and it’s hard to see Kessler having much of a place among those talented fighter.
It’s unknown right now who will be Kessler’s replacement. A lot of boxing fans would like to see IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute in the Super Six tournament, but it’s doubtful that Bute would take this kind of big step because it would go against the kinds of moves he’s made during his career. Up until now, the best fighter that Bute has fought has probably been Librado Andrade, who arguably beat him in their first fight. I can’t see Bute wanting to step it up against dangerous fighters like Arthur Abraham, Dirrell, Ward and Allan Green. Bute will likely continue to defend his title against the likes of Jesse Brinkley and steer clear of the Super Six tournament where he would likely get beaten over and over again.
We can only speculate that the injury might have been caused by Ward’s lancing jabs that he was landing in his fight with Kessler all night long. Those shots were powerful jabs and Kessler was eating them all night long more than from Ward’s right hands. Kessler said that he had the eye injury from the start of the Super Six tourney and that it caused him to have problems judging distance and messed up his balance in his fights and while sparring. His trainer Jimmy Montoya wouldn’t let Kessler spar after the Froch fight due to the seriousness of the injury.
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