15 years ago today: Mikkel "The Viking Warrior" Kessler vs. Dimitri "The Machinist" Sartison

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Coming into this contest for the vacant WBA "regular" super middleweight championship, the Kazakh-German challenger "Der Industriemechaniker" brought an undefeated record of 22-0 (14) but was taking a huge step up in class and had only recently graduated from 8-rounders to a few 10-rounders. His best opponents were a couple of passing fair South Americans, in glass cannon Argentine giant Pablo Daniel Zamora Nievas and the slightly more dangerous but also extremely limited Venezuelan southpaw Gusmyr "Azúcar Torpedo" Perdomo (a future Kessler victim).

Even coming off his first career loss, a heartbreaker in which Mikkel said post-fight that his every move and real-time attempt to adjust was thwarted as his "boxing was spoiled" by one Joe Calzaghe, the Dane was favored by most - although some did cautiously now their acknowledgment of Sartison's decent power & skill. As it turned out, he put both to good use for a few rounds and even stunned Kessler in the 1st - but eventually the superior experience, technique and stamina would result in a 12th round KO for the rebuilding pride of Denmark.

On paper, the fight seemed in the short term detrimental to winner & loser alike - with Sartison rushed to a local hospital and sparking murmurs of concern across the global internet boxing community (this was still a few years before many of us were traumatized by watching Kovalev vs. Simakov live, but such outcomes were hardly unknown to anybody in 2008 even though it'd perhaps been a while since the last high-profile tragedy...maybe Leavander Johnson?) and the WBA ordering Kessler to defend his new belt versus another German, the green & unheralded Danilo Häussler, within four months or else be stripped, causing him to abandon plans for a lucrative and much in-demand showdown with fellow 1-2 specialist Kelly Pavlik.

All's well that ends well, though, as the following year would be a boon for both men's careers. 2009 saw Dimitri Sartison climb once more into contention and on this go-round successfully capture the WBA title a stoppage of Stjepan Božić (formerly a highly successful Croatian amateur, with a victory over Carl Froch en route to a Euro Championship silver medal) before defending by UD over Armenian southpaw Khoren Gevor. Kessler may have missed the chance to put on a memorable show with Pavlik, but after two WBA defenses (against Häussler and Perdomo) he would earn huge money and global recognition as part of the Super Six World Boxing Classic. Granted, he picked up a loss (and dropped the belt) in his first tourney match to Andre Ward, but that first stage wasn't instant elimination, so he was able to produce a bout for the ages with Froch in Stage 2 before withdrawing and vacating the WBC title due to injury.