By Jim Dower: Former WBA/WBC Mikkel Kessler (44-2, 33 KO’s) looked great in his first fight in over a year on Saturday night taking out little known Frenchman Mehdi Bouadla (22-4, 10 KO’s) in the 6th round of a scheduled 12 at the Parken, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Kessler, 32, knocked the shorter 5’9″ Boudla down four times in the fight. Two of the knockdowns occurred in the 6th round.

The referee Manuel Maritxalar halted the bout at 2:25 after the second knockdown of the round. Overall, Kessler looked good, almost as sharp as he was in his last bout against Carl Froch back in April 1010. With this win, Kessler is talking about possibly facing WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz in his next fight in 2011.

Kessler got off to a slow start against Boudla in the first couple of rounds, having problems with his jab and not looking particularly powerful or sharp during those rounds. Although Kessler had the height advantage over Boudla, their reach was pretty much the same. Boudla was able to make contact with Kessler easily when the two fighters were on the outside. When they were in close, Boudla also looked powerful and had little problems finding holes in Kessler’s defense.

In the 3rd round, Kessler turned it up a notch as he came out throwing much harder and faster shots. He jabbed and landed hard combinations until stunning and dropping Boudla with a powerful right hand. Boudla didn’t do himself any favors by spitting out his mouthpiece to try and buy some time after the knockdown, a move which led to Boudla being docked a point by the referee. Once the action resumed, Kessler went all out trying to score a knockout but was unable to finish Boudla off. Kessler had Boudla cornered for much of the remainder of the round and landed an enormous amount of head shots in the process. To Boudla’s credit, he weathered the storm and made it back to his corner at the end of the round.

Kessler scored another knockdown late in the 4th when he tagged Boudla with a hard right hand to the head that staggered Boudla and sent him to the canvas.

In the 5th, Kessler pummeled Boudla at will with combinations and had his nose bleeding. Boudla was desperate to try and land a big home run punch to bail himself out of the situation and threw a lot of shots that missed badly.

Kessler finished the job in the 6th by knocking Boudla down two more times, the first coming from a left to the head and the final knockdown from a right hand to the head.

With this win it’s likely that Kessler goes after Stieglitz next. That’s the much safer fight for the still rusty Kessler than if he were to take on the much tougher and talented IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute.