By Jim Dower: Yahoo Sports writer Kevin Iole is a little suspicious about WBC super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler’s (43-2, 32 KO’s) eye injury, which was the excuse that Kessler gave for pulling out of the Super Six tournament recently. Kessler complained that he had been suffering blurred and double vision and it had given him problems for awhile and effected his ability to train for his now canceled fight with Allan Green in the Super Six tournament. Iole had this to say about Kessler’s injury in his Yahoo column:
“I became even more suspicious of Kessler’s injury after seeing Showtime’s Fight Camp 360 on Wednesday, in which Kessler was driving his car and talking to the camer after he had withdrawn from the tournament. If he has double vision, is it a good idea to be driving a car at all, let alone while keeping only partial attention on the road? I think not. Further, his doctor said he’ll be fine after eight months of rest – no surgery needed, miraculously – just at a time when he will be able to resume training and potentially fight the tournament winner.”
While I can somehow see what Iole is talking about here, I just don’t see Kessler being willing to throw away 9 months of his career resting. That’s what the doctor recommended for him to do. Kessler will be giving up not only his WBC title but also 9 months of his career by not fighting. On the flip side, Kessler doesn’t have to fight Green and possibly Carl Froch, Andre Dirrell or Andre Ward. Kessler was expected to win the Green fight, but it may have proven to be a grueling fight for him because Green, a big puncher, would be desperate at this point to try and make up for his bad showing in his loss to Andre Ward in his first fight in the Super Six tournament last June.
Even if Kessler did beat Green, he would have had to take some punishment along the way. A rematch with Ward would likely be pure hell for Kessler, a fight he might have problems winning. Kessler looked over-matched in his one-sided 11 round technical decision loss to Ward last year in his first fight in the Super Six tournament. Still, I can’t see Kessler backing out of the tournament because he was afraid to get beaten or suffer punishment.
Kessler had just finished beating Carl Froch in one of the most exciting fights of the entire tournament. Granted, Kessler took a real beating in that fight by Froch, but he still got through it and looked in good fighting shape at the end.
Kessler will certainly benefit by being able to fight the Super Six tournament winner in nine months, because whoever emerges as the Super Six tourney winner will likely be a little beaten up and worn down by the time they fight a fresh and well rested Kessler in nine or more months. However, I can’t see Kessler pulling out of the tournament with any kind of fake injury just to avoid getting beaten up and suffering another loss on his record. That just doesn’t seem like anything Kessler would do.
I think he’s going to have problems beating the eventual winner, because he barely beat Froch and was totally dominated by Ward. But he may have a chance if he’s able to improve on the flaws he showed in the Froch and Ward fights. He’s got to stop taking so much punishment. Kessler has looked good against good fighters but he hasn’t looked good when he’s stepped it up a level against really good fighters like Joe Calzaghe, Froch and Ward.
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