By Scott Gilfoid: We’re about to see former WBC/WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (44-2, 33 KO’s) get exposed again when he steps up the level of opposition and takes on the much improved WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (41-2. 23 KO’s) on April 14th at the Parken, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Had this fight taken place back in 2008 when Stieglitz was still very much an unfinished product, I think Kessler would have won the fight without too many problems. But Stieglitz has gotten a lot better since he lost to Librado Andrade in 2008, and has won his last 10 fights and looked very sharp in each of his fights.

I can’t say the same thing for Kessler. He’s been fading since his loss to Joe Calzaghe in November 2007. Kessler has won five of his last six fights since that defeat, but was soundly beat by Andre Ward in November 2009, and took a great deal of punishment in his close 12 round decision win over Carl Froch. Kessler took a lot of head shots in that fight and was forced to pull out of the Super Six tournament not longer after due to an eye injury he had suffered. It was thought that Kessler would never fight again, but he finally came back after 14 months out of the ring to defeat little known fringe contender Mehdi Boudla by a 6th round TKO last June. Kessler looked decent but he wasn’t facing anyone that was a threat to him.

Stieglitz is going to be a real problem for Kessler because he likes to throw a lot of punches and has excellent power. Stieglitz recently defeated German contender Henry Weber by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision win last January in a fight where Stieglitz put on a clinic in how to throw combinations. He looked very impressive and has been for this four fights. I liked what I saw and I can see Kessler having major problems if Stieglitz can take him deep.