By Allen Fox: All former super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (44-2, 33 KO’s) has to do is get by WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (40-2, 23 KO’s) on November 5th and it opens up a number of big fights for the 32-year-old Kessler against the likes of WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward, WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch, IBF champ Lucian Bute, Anthony Dirrell, Andre Dirrell, Arthur Abraham or Jermain Tayor.

Kessler has it tough against Stieglitz, because the German based fighter can punch a little and has really improved since he was stopped in the 8th round by Librado Andrade in March 2008. Stieglitz has won his last nine fights since that bout, and looks to be throwing with more power.

However, Stieglitz has never fought anyone as talented as Kessler, so we can’t be sure what to expect of him in this fight. All I know is if Stieglitz can’t get past Kessler’s jab then he’s in for a painful night of punishment. Stieglitz can’t stay on the outside and let Kessler have his way. He’s got to go after the Dane and fight him in close.

Stieglitz isn’t a bad fighter in close, but he’s not as good as Ward, who really dominated Kessler on the inside. However, Ward was able to control Kessler because of his speed and good head movement. He dodged a lot of big shots from Kessler that most fighters would have been hit with. I’ve seen a number of Stieglitz’s fights and he has none of the speed or head movement that Ward has showed in his fights. So you can expect for Stieglitz to get hit often by Kessler in this fight. If Stieglitz can handle the punishment in order to get his own shots it, then he might just be okay but I have my doubts he’ll be able to take it for long without going down for the count.