Mikkel Kessler

By Erik Schmidt: As a German with a little bit of Danish blood in me (1/8th on my Mother’s side), I was frankly sadly disappointed by Mikkel Kessler’s (40-1, 30 KOs) performance on Saturday night against Dimitri Sartison (22-1, 14 KOs) in their fight for the vacant WBA super middleweight title. Kessler looked old and much slower than I’d ever seen him before any of his fights, looking nothing like the same fighter that had beaten quality opponents like Markus Beyer, Anthony Mundine, Eric Lucas and Librado Andrade. For that matter, he didn’t even looking half as good as he did in his losing fight against Joe Calzaghe in November, and I thought he was beginning to show signs of slipping even back then.

But, Kessler’s fight against Sartison was a new low for him in terms of quality performance. First of all, he looked terrified of Sartison from the earliest moments of the fight, giving him way too much respect than he should have given him. Certainly Sartison had a fine record going into the fight, but he had never fought any quality fighters during his career, hence you could pretty much totally throw out his entire unbeaten record. Kessler stayed on the outside, jabbing on his back foot, for almost the entire fight up until the 11th and 12th rounds, when it was painfully obvious that Sartison was totally exhausted and was ready for the taking.

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By Erik Schmidt: Former super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (40-1, 30 KOs) easily destroyed Dmitri Sartison (22-1, 14 KOs) in an impressive 12th round stoppage to win the vacant WBA super middleweight title tonight at the Brondby hallen, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sartison, 28, was totally dominated all fight long, badly beaten in every round and knocked down both in the 11th and 12th round. The fight was stopped after the second knockdown, as Sartison was too badly hurt to continue fighting.

Immediately afterwards, a badly beaten Sartison was rushed to a nearby hospital to be examined for head injuries. In the 1st round, Sartison using powerful hooks and a straight right hand, appeared to stun Kessler with a big right hand. Sartison added a several more big shots in the round because Kessler could regain his composure and once again start jabbing at a distance. From that point, Kessler fought much more cautiously, using his jab and in and out movement to keep Sartison from tagging him like he had in the first round. Still, Sartison was able to catch Kessler with big shots every now and then, hitting him much more often than I’d ever seen him hit before.

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By Nate Anderson: Tomorrow night, we’ll be seeing arguably the second best super middleweight in boxing when the Danish Mikkel Kessler (39-1, 29 KOs) faces little known Dimiri Sartison (22-0, 14 KOs) for the vacant WBA super middleweight title in Copenhagen. Kessler, known mostly for his technical boxing skills and well as his excellent power and elusiveness, originally wanted to fight WBA super middleweight champion Australian Anthony Mundine for the title.

However, Mundine gave up the title on May 28th, which left the title open for Kessler, the number #1 contender and Sartison, the #4 contender to battle it out for the vacant title. Kessler had hopes of fighting middleweight Kelly Pavlik sometime either late this year or early next year. However, it was learned today that the winner of tomorrow night’s fight between Kessler and Sartison will have only 120 days with which to defend the title against Danilo Haussler. For Kessler, should he win tomorrow night, that’s not the best of boxing news he could get because a bout with Pavlik would figure to be a much bigger and better paying bout than the virtually unknown Haussler would.

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By Scott Gilfoid: This Saturday night, former WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (39-1, 29 KOs) makes his return to the ring in his first fight since losing his titles to Joe Calzaghe when he takes on the hard-punching Dimitri Sartison (22-0, 14 KOs) for the vacant WBA super middleweight title at the Brondby hallen, in Copenhagen, Denmark. It’s been seven months since Kessler, 29, experienced his disappointing unanimous decision loss to Calzaghe at the Millennium Stadium, in Cardiff, Wales, and he’s been in the uncomfortable situation of having to pick a fight that would be best for his boxing career.

He had an opportunity to face Edison Miranda in what would have been a fight that would have paid Kessler a good payday and at the same time given him a lot of visibility in the U.S, as it was going to be shown on the sports cable network ESPN. However, after giving it a lot of thought, Kessler turned it down, instead choosing to go after the WBA super middleweight title held by Anthony Mundine, a fighter that Kessler previously beat three years ago in June 2005. Rather than face Kessler again, who beat him by 12-round unanimous decision, Mundine instead chose to vacate the title and go after a fight against fellow Australian Sam Soliman.

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By Nate Anderson: Former WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (39-1, 29 KOs) will be taking on undefeated Dimitri Sartison (22-0, 14 KOs) for the vacant WBA super middleweight title on June 21st at the Brondby Hallen, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Kessler, 29, had been on course to challenger WBA super middleweight title holder Anthony Mundine for the title, but Mundine opted to take on Sam Soliman in a rematch, which would have made it the fourth fight since winning the title in March 2007 that Mundine would have failed to defend his title against his number #1 challenger.

This opened up the title for Kessler to fight Sartison, an unbeaten fighter from Kazakhstan, who has fought largely no one while building up his unbeaten record. Kessler had previously been in negotiations to fight former middleweight contender Edison Miranda, but after going back and forth with ESPN for weeks, Kessler backed out, hoping to fight Mundine for the title. With Mundine off the table, Kessler was left with the little-known Sartison, 28, ranked #4 in the WBA, as his opponent for the title.

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