From Kesslers Facebook profile: New head coach for Froch fight. First of all thank you very much for the support in 2009! You are without a doubt the best fans in the world! Thank you for all the positive comments on my Facebook wall and for taking the time to write them! I appreciate all comments deeply! Your dedicated support of my career is one of those elements that makes the Froch fight in the second round of the Super Six tournament maybe the most important fight of my career - I will work my b.. off to win that fight! Another important element to that fight is the opportunity to show the boxing world that what happened in Oakland was a one-time incident. Against Froch you will see a mad and hungry Mikkel Kessler ready to prove all those people wrong who have criticized me for my lack of sportive ambition in the Super Six tournament! I will come back stronger than ever to show my home crowd what I am made of! Calzaghe and Ward have now defeated me in close fights where they succeeded in taking away my strengths. The corner and I never really found a solution to that challenge and therefore I lost the fights. I need to cope with that kind of situations and therefore I have decided to install another coach for the Froch fight than Richard Olsen. Richard has been my close friend for ages and he has been my coach in each an every single fight of my career so far. Richard made me the fighter I am today without him I would never have made it to this level. The reason why I have decided to bring in new competences into the team is to try to look at the tactics from a new perspective. My new head coach is the legendary Jimmy Montoya. Jimmy has been a part of my team before, as an assistant of Richard, but never as the head coach. Jimmy has a life-long experience in the world of boxing, and I am sure that he will be able to teach me new tactical dimensions and take me to the finals of the Super Six tournament. Yesterday I was informed that Jermain Taylor has decided to retire from the Super Six tournament because of the tough knockouts in his last 2 fights. That is a decision I respect, family comes first, no matter what your job is! His drop-out of the Super Six also means that I will get a new opponent in my final fight of the group stage. A lot of names have been mentioned to take that seat but let me make things clear to everyone no matter which fighter will be in the ring with me this fall he is going down! My team and I have made a tight schedule until the fight, and I will try to update you guys as often as possible about how my preparation is moving on, news about the fights and behind-the-scene pictures. For your information I will present a new partner/sponsor next week. Have a great 2010! Mikkel Kessler
cant wait for my boy kessler to show that he meant business in the super six..... hope he's new coach will inspire him a lot to post a win against froch...... i'm rooting for you boy......go beat froch!!!!
This is the change kessler needed. Montoya wasn't really able to help kessler change tactics in between rounds because he wasn't in his corner. Olsen was completely lost in the calzaghe and ward fights, and it showed on kessler's face. I think montoya will be able to not only give kessler bonified boxing tactics, but that mental edge that he seems to lack. Either way, as i said before that froch doesn't give a style that troubles kessler. BTW, could you imagine a kessler that still does everything he does now, but with lateral movement as well as bending at the waist and knees?:admin The guy would be a killer!
Kessler's biggest problem is that he lacks natural talent compared to someone like Ward or previously Calzaghe. Kessler has got to where he is by hard work, but if more talented fighters work just as hard, then they will beat Kessler. A change of coach won't help, he would lose to Ward again if they meet in the finals.
Montoya is experienced but at this level he won't be any better.He is best known for supplying tomata cans to opponents in the early days of ESPN.He is more of a ring rat than a head trainer.
