Kessler wants third fight with Froch, willing to fight in London

kessler#11By Scott Gilfoid: Not only is Denmark’s Mikkel Kessler (46-3, 35 KO’s) willing to fight IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (31-2, 22 KO’s) in a 3rd fight, but he also says he’s willing to fight Froch in the UK in London again. Kessler doesn’t care that he might be in a situation where he could need a knockout to win, he still wants to face Froch a third time.

Kessler said to Sky Sports Ringside “I would a third one…I would go back to London. I don’t care. Maybe not a neutral place because wouldn’t recognize us or know about boxing, and would have to travel. So I think we have to do it in London or Copenhagen.”

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Kessler says he over-trained for Froch fight

kessler4000By Scott Gilfoid: Mikkel Kessler (46-3, 35 KO’s) realizes now what he did wrong when he got narrowly beaten by IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (31-2, 22 KO’s) last May in a 12 round unanimous decision defeat in London.

Kessler says he left his best behind in training camp by overdoing it. Kessler did look awfully drained in the fight, especially in the first four rounds and in the 12th.

Kessler wasn’t outworking Froch like he did in their first fight in 2010, and he was just standing around too much letting Froch throw limp noodle-like jabs.

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Froch: I’d rather fight Kessler than Ward; he’s not entertaining

froch92By Scott Gilfoid: Just as I thought; all the talk that IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (31-2, 22 KO’s) made about being open to fighting Andre Ward in the UK seems to have been nothing more than lip service. Froch is now saying he prefers to fight Mikkel Kessler a third time rather than getting in the ring with the talented 29-year-old Ward.

Froch said to Sky Sports today: “I’d rather fight someone like him [Kessler] than Andre Ward, because Andre Ward is a spoiler and a ‘messer’, he tricks his way through a fight and gets the win. It’s not very entertaining and it’s a horrible fight to be involved in.”

I bet it’s a horrible fight to be involved with because Ward beats the heck out of his opponents for 12 rounds and there’s never fun. So Froch would rather fight Kessler than Ward, eh? Well, there it is. I knew it.

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Carl Froch willing to fight Kessler in a neutral venue

froch305By Dominic Sauboorah: WBA and IBF Super Middleweight champion Carl Froch (31-2 20 KO’s) stated in his post-fight press conference how he’s willing to fight Mikkel Kessler (46-3 35 KO’s) for a third time in a neutral venue. I think it’s fair as they’ve both fought on each others home turfs and both have a win over one another, so the third one could be seen as the decider.

Despite the great performance Froch put in the fight was closer than what the judges suggested. I had Froch winning by one round considering that Kessler came on strong in the middle rounds and had Froch badly hurt in the 11th. Nevertheless I do believe that the best man won. A third fight would be a treat for the fans and the fact that they’re talking about staging it at a neutral venue shows the character of the two men and how they’re willing to fight anywhere.

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Froch threw 1034 punches against Kessler, landing only 25%

froch443By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch’s punch stats showed a fighter who threw an awful lot of punches last night in beating Mikkel Kessler by a 12 round unanimous decision, but the accuracy from Froch was dreadful to say the least. Froch missed with 75% of his punches last night. That’s why Kessler wasn’t marked up despite Froch throwing a massive of shots.

HBO’s CompuBox stats showed that Froch threw 1034 punches but only connected on 25 percent of them. In contrast, Kessler threw less than half of the amount of punches that Froch threw with 497 punches but had a much healthier 39 percent connects percentage.

Froch wasted a ton of punches by throwing jabs that hit air all night long.

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Hearn: Carl Froch doesn’t need Andre Ward; people want Froch-Kessler 3

kessler4000By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn, the promoter for IBA/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (31-2, 22 KO’s) came out and said it in plain language that he’s not looking to put Froch in with Andre Ward in his next fight. Instead, Hearn is eyeing a third fight between Froch and Mikkel Kessler or possibly a fight against 48-year-old Bernard Hopkins. Of those two, Hearn seems more excited about a Froch-Kessler third fight because of fan interest.

Hearn said to I Film London “I said it before, Andre Ward is a fantastic fighter, but he needs Carl Froch; Carl Froch doesn’t need Andre Ward. He’s [Froch] got two of these little babies [Froch’s WBA & WBC titles].

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Froch confesses: Kessler hurt me

kessler65By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight Carl Froch gave the straight talk after his 12 round unanimous decision win Mikkel Kessler, saying that he was hurt by the Dane on at least one occasion in their fight at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

It’s nice that Froch admitted it because it would have been disappointing if he tried to claim that he wasn’t hurt because Froch was staggered in the 11th round after Kessler nailed him with some jarring shots.

Froch said after the fight ”He was there to hurt me on a couple of occasions he did hurt me.”

Froch was lucky that Kessler wasn’t giving him the full treatment like he did in their first fight because Kessler’s punches seemed harder this time around and they had more of an effect on Froch when landing.

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Andre Ward: Kessler should keep fighting if his body lets him

kessler564By Allan Fox: Unbeaten Andre Ward doesn’t think Mikkel Kessler (46-3, 35 KO’s) should retire after his close 12 round unanimous decision loss tonight against IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch in London.

Ward thinks Kessler fought a good fight but that he didn’t throw enough punches in the early rounds of the fight, and put himself in a spot where he had to rally hard just to catch up to Froch.

Ward said after the fight about whether Kessler should retire or still fight: “If he wants to and he can physically hold up, I think he should fight on.”

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Froch: Ward has to come to the UK to fight me

froch302By Scott Gilfoid: Fresh off of his 12 round unanimous decision win over WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler tonight in London, England, IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch gave his one condition for WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward to fight him – the fight has to take place in the UK where Froch lives.

In other words, Froch doesn’t want to come to the United States to fight Ward again after losing to him by a 12 round unanimous decision in December 2011 while the two were taking part in the Super Six tournament hosted by Showtime Sports.

Froch said to Sky Sports tonight: “He [Ward] is there to be beaten, but not over in America. Let’s get him over here. I went over to America and now let’s get him over to England. I said before this fight that the winner should really be concentrating on moving on and my other loss was to pound for pound number two in the world Andre Ward.”

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