Kessler could become a better fighter than Calzaghe

kessler is a bit injury prone and i dont think he will have enough fights left in his career to improve a real lot from what he is

 

I hope so Jan. Kessler is undoubtedly a fine fighter and has the tools to beat all at 168. I just hope he gets the fights and shows us all what he really is capable of. I just have this awful gut feeling that 'Team Palle' is somehow going to throw a spanner in the works? How about you?

 

You make it sound like Kessler has 20 professional fights only, the guy has had 40, don't expect any style changing improvements at this point.

 

Kessler is no atg in the making, he is a good fighter that will be beaten again, by whom? I dont know but his style is very beatable

 

I'd just love to see him fight Pavlik and Taylor sometime in the near future. Good matchups in my opinion.

 

All inside of two years... interesting, given that his team spent half a year balking over probably the weakest name in that list.

 

I think you are absolutely right. And when I see him in interviews in danish tv, I clearly sense that he and the people behind him think the same way.

I think that he can perform quite a bit better than he did against Calzaghe. ( Not saying that that would be enough to beat Calzaghe though)

But I think that will be enough to beat most of the top names out there. Including Pavlik. Man I hope to see those two fight.

I think that Kessler would be satisfied with having 3 more succesful fights in his career, and then retire by the age of 30.

If he really would be succesful against lets say Bute Pavlik and one or two other top names. I mean come out of those fights as the winner, I honestly think he would retire as a satiesfied man.

I read in one of the danish paper, along time ago before Mikkel Kessler became champion in 2004, him allready at that point ponder if it was really worth it continuing with his career.

I remember he said that he had been numb in one of his legs or both ( i dont remember exactly) one morning, and that he thinking that maybe it wasnt worth it to continue boxing with these back problems.

These back problems became severe a couple of months before he met Mundine in his first title defence. ( that was why they had to reschedule the fight)

But it was in the preparation for the fight with Mundine that he met his physiotherapist Thomas Macon, who really helped him. And his back has been relatively good ever since. He only got 30 rounds of sparring before the Mundine fight, though. At least that was what the people around him said.

I get the impression that he is still fighting for 2 things. In this order.
1. He see that he has the oppoutunity to earn some money in the next couple of years.
2. He still feel that he can be a force in the middle weight division. A dominating force. And he wants to show this to himself and the boxing world.

That is why he is still 100 percent focused on his fighting career. But only for the next 2 or maybe 3 years. That is what he himself says.

That is also why he says that he only want the very big fights from now on. Fights where there are things at stake.

Hopefully he will be WBA champ SOON.. Mikkel Kessler needs the big fights now.

If any of you out there thinks that he is ducking Miranda or anyone else, you simply just dont know the man, or what plans he has.

I Think: From this day in history, Mikkel Kessler will not fight more than 5 fights more Tops. And he will be retired within 3 years. Either by an injury, a loss that will make it difficult for him to get a worthwhile fight again, or his own decision based on hopefully what he considers a satiesfying career.

He will never ever be in this game long enough to reach the status of Roy Jones or Joe Calzaghe. Whether he has the talent or not.
But less will do.
And I dont think it is his goal.As I explained. I am writing this as a big MIkkel Kessler fan.

 

Anybody would have to be crazy to disagree with the last part of your statement.

That is absolutely.

I think that we will or could potentially see Kessler perform like he did against Andrade/be better than he was against Joe. Just a few percent better.

But a fundamental change that will make him a whole new boxer. No I dont think so it is too late in his career. And it is not necessary.

 

Sadly it wouldn't take that much to out do Calzaghe's resume ... Calzaghe made many defenses - yes - but he defended the WBO-belt against handpicked opponents 9 out of 10 times - making only 2 mandatory defenses - Kessler got two of those already - one against a top5 opponent away from home.

That's another thing Calzaghe has going against him - he has been "stay at home Joe" for most fights - never seemed keen on making fights happen - only when the top really came to him did he fight them (Lacy and Kessler)

If Kessler unifies again - taking the hard fights in the US (not an old ATG - but the young and hungry (Pavlik/Taylor or the likes) - then I'm pretty sure he's resume will be considered better than Calzaghe's ... calzaghe stayed at home for too long fighting for the WBO-belt for too long - a shame really he could have been great! His best hope is actually that Kessler goes on to really dominate for years to come - a Pavlik-fight would do good too.

Just a final note: I think Calzaghe's career has been very very good - in my book he is clearly a A+ fighter - but when it comes down to it People value the fights in the US more - the fighters to really goes after the best opponents - makes them fight and lose (we can agree that it might be a little unfair - but that is just the way things are).

Futhermore he has too many soft defenses - he went nine years before trying to unify - 9 years!!! Kessler unified after two and his promotor is much weaker than Warren - so Calzaghe/Warren could have made that happen long before they where more or less forcd to do it.

 

Well that's like saying the Kessler of Cesar Green would have beaten Calzaghe - you can't tell sh*t from a fight like Veit I - Veit would have lost to anyone that night - you could see it in his eyes on the way to the ring.

Calzaghe of the Veit I might be great - but you can't make that out from that fight - it was a blow out and mostly due to Veit being beaten before he even entered the ring.

 

I like Kessler, don't get me wrong, he seems like a likeable guy in the interviews I've read and I loved the way he took ownership of his loss against Calzaghe and realised he had lost.

Just a little sick of seeing him mentioned as an all conquering fighter when he hasn't proven it yet.

If he comes forward and beats Miranda, Jones/Taylor, Bute/Andrade and Froch then he has a leg to stand on.

But so far, you can question the merits of each of his wins, just like you can with Sven Ottke and like you could prior to Lacy, Kessler and Hopkins for Calzaghe.

That and the fact that his style isn't unbeatable, he's not invinceable yet some here seem to think the only person he loses to is Calzaghe.

 

Calzaghe is pretty much the only person he loses to, from 160-168

That is just common sense.

 

The stigma that Joe was taking soft defenses is bollocks. You defend your title twenty times in a division, you're going to have a range of fighters for people to scrutanise.

Tocker Pudwill, sure, that was a guy that could be scutanised but what do you expect when you have to change fighters two weeks out due to an injury? Even Tocker had a title challenge before his fight against Joe.

The "top" guys that Kessler beat, would have problems, big problems with some of the so called soft defenses Calzaghe had.

I would expect Reid, Woodhall, Mitchell and McIntyre to handle Andrade, with guys like Mkertchian, Sheika, Starie and even Veit to have good chances of victory.

And if Siaca was able to beat Mundine, then you've got to imagine the guys mentioned above would all have good shots, they were all far better fighters than Siaca.

Kessler got lucky by facing Beyer when Beyer had nothing left (as exposed by his retirement) and a young Andrade that was even more over-rated than Lacy.

No way Andrade was Top 10 SMW when he fought Kessler, yet he was logged as such.

People don't know much about the history of SMW. If they did, they'd realise the only feesible challenges Joe never got was Beyer and Ottke.

Beyer and Ottke both didn't want a piece of Joe from what I've read, but the competition Joe defeated at SMW was as good as the competition that Hopkins defeated at MW.

Again, this is just a gross understatement of the fighters Joe beat in the earlier years against a gross overstatement of the fighters Kessler has beaten.

This is why I just get a little miffed at people believing Kessler is 100% assured of victory against the Pavliks, Taylors, Mirandas, Dawsons, Abrahams and even Butes.

 

I don't think it is.

I don't think you can concieveably say that Kessler has been tested enough with the challenges he's had to this point that you can predict what a guy like Pavlik or Abraham or Taylor will do.

The only time Kessler was knocked off of his gameplan, he lost.

People may say "Oh, but he was dominant for 39 other fights" but seriously, anyone criticising Joe Calzaghe's career should take a mean look at Kesslers.

Sartison represents a Top 3 or 4 contender for Kessler and he's not even known to anyone, prior to the Kessler fight being signed, no one had heard of him.

 

Kessler has had challenges, and a range of styles to face. Andrade, a good B- level pressure fighter, completely outclassed and schooled over 12

Mundine, a B level quick and athletic, defensively strong counterpunching type. Clearly beaten, competetive but clear

Even Beyer, a good technical fighter, although past his best it is impressive to KO him inside 3, nobody did anything like that to him

Then he loses a competitive bout to an A level elite like Calzaghe

All of the above points to him being A- level, and likely to beat any of the aforementioned names.