By Scott Gilfoid: Mikkel Kessler’s once promising career is just sputtering along at this point with him having fought only twice in the past couple of years, and him now fighting the tough Brian Magee (36-4-1, 25 KO’s) for the vacant WBA super middleweight crown on December 8th at the BOXEN, Herning, Denmark.

That’s a fight that the 33-year-old Kessler may very well lose because Magee is a lot better than anyone Kessler has fought in the last couple of years, and his power is enough to put Kessler on the canvas for the 10 count. We just saw Allan Green knock Kessler on his backside last May, and he could have finished the job had he pressed the action.

Magee isn’t going to let an opportunity like that go by, believe me. If he gets Kessler on the canvas he’s going to keep him there.

Kessler won’t have it any easier if he gets past Magee, because the World Boxing Association recently ordered the Magee-Kessler winner to fight WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward by June of 2013. This means that Kessler, should he get past Magee, he’ll have to fight Ward for a second time and I don’t see anything good coming of this for Kessler. I don’t think anyone in their right mind sees Kessler as having a chance against Ward in a rematch. Ward totally dominated Kessler in beating him by a 11th round technical decision in October 2009, and that fight showed how superior Ward was compared to the Dane. He really whipped Kessler bad in that fight. It was interesting to see Kessler blame his defeat afterwards on the cuts he sustained from head-butts in that fight, but that’s not the reason he lost that fight. Kessler lost because Ward was simply the more talented fighter.

Kessler wants to beat Magee and then look to fight Carl Froch, the IBF super middleweight champion, in a rematch next year. That can’t happen unless Kessler chooses to fight Froch immediately in the first part of the year before June. However, if Kessler does that he’ll be stripped by the WBA because he has to fight Ward by June and there’s no way Kessler can fight Froch in March or April and still be able to fight Ward by June. That’s not going to happen.

Magee has got a lot of talent and is fighting at the top of his game right now with recent wins over Danes Mads Larsen and Rudy Markussen. I can see Magee defeating Kessler on December 8th and spoiling his hopes for a fight against Froch net year. I don’t think for a second that Kessler wants to fight Ward again, so that’s not really material. Magee would actually be doing Kessler a huge favor by beating him to keep him away from Ward for a second fight.