By Scott Gilfoid: WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (41-2, 23 KO’s) is catching former WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (44-2, 33 KO’s) at the perfect time in the Dane’s career just when he’s starting to show some serious wear and tear from the combinations of a lot of hard fights and then natural aging process. Stieglitz and Kessler will be meeting on April 14th at the Parken, Copenhagen.

This is a crucial fight for both of them but especially the 33-year-old Kessler because he hasn’t beaten a quality fighter in quite some time due to his inactivity and mixed results in taking part in the Super Six tournament.

Kessler was starting to show his age back when Andre Ward beat him in 2009. I can only imagine what the years have done to him since then. He barely beat Carl Froch after the Ward defeat and then took a year off and came back to defeat little known fringe contender Mehdi Boudla last year in June. It’s now been nine months since Kessler last fought and you can’t expect him to look very good in his next bout against Stieglitz next month. Everything is going against him for him to succeed in this fight.

Stieglitz is fighting better than he ever had, and has made five defenses of his World Boxing Organization title after beating champion Karoly Balzsay by an 11th round TKO in August 2009. Stieglitz has beaten the following guys since picking up the belt: Eduard Gutknecht, Ruben Eduardo Acosta, Enrique Ornelas, Khoren Gevor, Henry Weber. To be sure, that’s a mixed bag but there’s certainly some quality there in his wins over Gutknecht, Ornelas and Gevor.

Stieglitz has the work rate and the power to give Kessler all he can handle in this fight and I don’t see how he’s going to be able to beat him unless he can recapture his best years of 2005-2007. Kessler is too old and too inactive for him to win this fight unless he gets really lucky and can blast Stieglitz out in the first four rounds before Kessler starts wearing down.