By Jason Kim: Former WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (43-2, 32 KO’s) is in great shape if he beats Mehdi Bousdla (22-3, 10 KO’s) tonight in Copenhagen, Denmark to get a title shot against WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz next. Kessler should easily do a way with Boudla by knockout, putting Kessler in the driver’s seat for a title shot against Stieglitz.

That’s an important fight for Kessler because once he captures the WBO title, he’ll be in a better bargaining position for a unification bout against IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute next year. That’s the big money fight that Kessler and his management are eying for the future. Kessler could, of course, take the Bute fight next if he likes but it would better to wait until Kessler at least has a title in his possession, even if it’s a paper one.

Kessler also needs at least one more fight under his belt before he faces a tough fighter like Bute. It would be asking a lot of Kessler to go from an entire year off from the sport and then taking an easy tune-up against Boudla followed by a very tough one against a fighter like Bute. Kessler is good enough to probably make this leap but it wouldn’t hurt to get one more fight to get the rust off before taking on a dangerous puncher like Bute.

Kessler has the boxing skills and the work rate to give Bute fits if he can take his occasional big shots. Bute doesn’t typically throw a lot of punches and often retreats from contact. Recently, he’s been sitting down more on his shots and is getting more knockouts because of it. However, if Bute can’t hurt Kessler with anything big, Bute may struggle and lose.