the Benn who fought Eubank 2 or Gerald McClellan against Kessler, we dont know what a prime Kessler is yet, but take him K0ing Beyer, or giving Calzaghe problems as his peak so far. To my knowledge Kessler aint ever been off his feet, could a prime Nige have ironed him out ? could Kessler detonate one of them Calzaghe rocking uppercuts onto Benns suspect chin.. Im going for Benn getting up off the floor early to explode one onto Kesslers chin round about the 5th round
hard to really judge kessler fully. i rate him highly, but he needs a massive win on his resume to justify any claim he could beat prime benn. personally i think kessler is too accurate and benn too wide open, but you can never really write off benn.
Dunno, Kessler never faced a puncher like Benn whereas Benn fought good boxers like Kessler. So I'd tend to favour Benn. Just for reference, Kessler was on the floor for the first time after his return from inactivity against Sartison.
Kessler if he is durable enough. The sort of durability needed for fighters like Benn and G Man has to be good. We can't make these match ups yet. We need to see Kessler take some bombs off of Froch and Abrahams to decide.
TFFP you and I have disagreed alot on many issues but i've always respected your opinions and wrongly ive always thought of you as a guy who will defend Kessler to the hilt and pick him to beat anybody .. I was wrong and i apologise to you for that .. When a pro - Kessler thread comes up in this forum i find myself always playing devils advocate against him, leading many people to believe i am somehow anti - Kessler .. This isnt the case, I think Mikkel Kessler is a very good fighter who will not achieve greatness until he beats a great fighter, and that is the criteria for any fighter. When i watched Kessler v Andrade, i had Kessler winning 11 rounds, it was a brilliant display BUT Andrade shouldnt be the template on which you judge a fighters worth. In reality Kessler has beaten Andrade (a guy who i dont rate at all), an old Markus Beyer who even at his best was 'ordinary' and he lost comfortably to Calzaghe by at least 3 rounds ..... That is a realistic assesment of Kessler's career, it consists of an old Beyer, Andrade, and a loss to Calzaghe ..... So comparing him to Benn or McClellan in a previous thread is ridiculous .... Kessler's career story isnt complete, so its impossible to judge on how much he will improve and what he has got against good opposition. The opposition that a fighter beats makes a fighter's legacy and up until now Kessler hasnt beaten anybody that will set the world on fire, maybe if he succeeds in this tournament and then beats Hopkins he can be considered a 'Great' fighter, but hes achieved nothing to give him that status at this point ..
McCllelan only beat an old Jackson to be fair. Kessler has shown a good skillset and beard, there's no reason why he can't be compared to Benn in a fantasy matchup, Benn's hardly an ATG himself is he???
An interesting match up definitely. One thing to consider is that Benn was really a middleweight at his best, and Kessler is HUGE at super-middle. Off the top of my head I can't recall Benn ever fighting someone as big as Kessler. Benn didn't quite carry the same fire power at 12st as he did at middleweight, and against someone like Kessler (who I reckon will be up at light-heavy before too long) I think this will diminish the effect of Benn's power somewhat (but make no mistake, he'll still be a hurtful puncher, just not quite the destroyer he was against other middleweights). I think Kessler stops Benn late. I am a huge Benn fan, but I can just see Kessler being too big and strong. If Benn is unable to stop Mikkel, I think after 8 or 9 rounds Kessler will start to "get on top" and wear a tiring Benn down and stop him. Benn never had the greatest of chins either, and Mikkel can bang a bit. "The Dark Destroyer" is the one fighter I would never like to bet against though, so I wouldn't put my house on it or anything. However, if pushed then I would go with Kessler, for the reasons I have stated.
Benn hit harder at 160 but I walways felt he was a smarter fighter at 168. Saying that I dont think he will be able to draw Kess into a brawl, and techinical boxers gave him trouble ala Watson. I see a points win for Kess but not a huge margin.
Thats exactly what I was thinking....Although Benn was a better and smarter fighter at 168 I think he would need to turn it into a bit of a war to win this...I probably would slightly favour Benn as I think he would catch Kessler, and he would hurt Kessler.......and I just don't know how Kessler would deal with it as he hasnt faced a skilled big puncher like Benn. Although the Benn that Watson beat at 160 was a different fighter to the prime 168 Benn. I honestly don't know on this one, but if I had to bet........I'll go with Benn!
