Perhaps. But perceptions of Kessler are really skewed. Many people underrate him, most people seem to overrate him. I think he's just a good/very good young fighter in his prime. But he's a bit one dimensional, and will never be considered 'great' IMO.
calzaghe has openly stated that his toughest and best opponent was kessler, and calzaghe toyed with this version of roy jones to a point of out right embarrasment. With all that being said you think roy jones and kessler is still 50 50 because rjj roughed up a limited and one dimensional lacy. Wow rjj should come and give you some kinda money or something because you are obviously on his payroll
Palle isn't too pleased that Kessler has left. He himself said that Mikkel was the best fighter he has ever promoted.
thats why palle wanted to keep him rolling the cash over in denmark... fighting sartisan for a paper belt after losing to calzaghe (but kessler gained a lot of respect, fans and publicity after that fight) instead of invading america showed how palle's attitude to kessler's career completely backflipped from pre-calzaghe, when kessler was dismantling much more dangerous and ranked challengers than calzaghe was fighting. EDIT : palle putting kessler in with a fringe euro champ after all the positive things that came out of the calzaghe fight really told kessler everything he needed to know because it lost the momentum built up from the calzaghe fight for international fans - just like sturm after oscar.
Oh no doubt. I agree with you. Palle would have completely wasted Kessler's career. As a matter of fact, other than pickng up the WBA belt, Palle wasted Kessler's 2008 and most of 2009, which is a shame.
it sure is. i use to raise some questions to kessler himself a couple of years ago because he seemed to be going with the flow but not missing out on why beating contenders in europe alone wont get him big fights. i'd like to think that helped make his mind up here, but i didnt know him and we just talked in the gymn sometimes so i had to be subtle dropping hints. things always look good when you're the fighter and you're winning and moving forward. but if you're good enough to taking it to the next level and then things go stale then you need to be clued in enough to know why, because fighters dont have a long lifespan.
You say 50/50, I say 90-10 in favor of Kessler at this point. The ten is only because when an ATG is fighting, even way past it, they're still an ATG. Is it worth mentioning that Jones is a light hw, hoping to make his next fight a cw one and Kessler is a super mw? Why are we even talking about this right now? Lacy? Come on.
its only hypothetical of course because kessler's taking a paper belt mandatory and then the tournament.
Well, that's an interesting thing to hear. I wasn't aware that you had met him. That's pretty damn cool. I'm guessing that he's the same nice guy in person that he is when being interviewed.