Froch v Kessler was damn good. Congrats to Kessler

He needs to go back to being a boxer, not a fighter. It was his old style, the one working cautiously behind the world class jab, that was the best and only version of Kessler. It might be glorious to watch for entertainment hungry boxing fans, but to me it has taken away his greatest assets, as a boxer.

Montoya has turned him into a slugger type of boxer. And he is starting to lose rounds because of it, not to mention in danger of going down. Luckily he has a solid chin, but it doesn't do Kessler the world of good to fight this way. I had a fear of it, when he faced Sartison and Perdomo, but discarded it under the possibility of ring rust, and trying to outmuscle inferior opposition.

Concerning the weightlifting thing, I agree. He does seem like someone who lifts too much iron, and forgetting speed training. Lifting iron just before a fight/match or whatever makes you slow. Or it could just be coupled with the fact that Kessler can't train as much as he did - say prior to the Beyer fight. Or father age coming early because of too many unimportant fights in a long career.

He did put in a dedicated fight, no doubt. But he needs to return to basics, and as you say, speed and movement training. 2-3 years ago, he would have outpointed the crude and limited Froch incredibly easy in a one-sided landslide win.

 

Weightlifting has nothing to do with this. He's been weightlifting for a long time and doing it the right way actually increase your speed. Right now he's not lifting weights as Jimmy Montoya only allow him to do exercises involving his own bodyweight (I assume this is chin-ups, dips etc.).

 

For me Froch vs Kessler fight was just medium quality ( not damn good ).
Even if I was expecting Froch to win I must admit that Kessler was the winner and UD was the right result.

 

Where I think the situation is - Kessler realised in his best form, he wasn't good enough to defeat the then champion in Calzaghe. He realised he had landed some early shots but ultimately was told to work on the body.

Going to the body and still defending yourself isn't easy, that's seen by how hittable Kessler is now vs the Kessler that was around 3-4 years ago. I think what he needs to do is find a trainer that is capable of teaching him these things while continuing to developer his best style, which is the crisp jabbing boxer with power in his hands.

I see two guys being great fits for him - one is Enzo Calzaghe, simply due to his ability to take raw talent and turn it into polished versions of it's former self, seen in Enzo Macarenelli and Gavin Reyes - who would have had no career without him.

The second is Emmanuel Steward. I think European boxers fit well with the way he teaches them to fight and I think Kessler wouldn't be an exception.

 

I maybe think Johnny Bredahl could learn Kessler how to move better and go around so the standing is better for the big right-hand...

 

:good

 

True. Kessler changed his style to beat Froch, but Froch will be difficult for everyone.

 

Usually weightlifting makes you slower, but I agree that if he does it in a very focused manner it can be used t obuild speed. I'm just not sure that it is used in the right way.

 

Bredahl has no trainer experience..

No, I think this is a very very bad idea. Kessler may take some ideas from looking at Bredahl videos, but having Bredahl as a trainer would be the silliest thing ever.

 

I agree. I think it is safe to only say a few things based on the fight. I think it is clear that Kessler had the right strategy for Froch. I think Kessler has found his motivation again. But otherwise, I think it is hard to say anything else because of how Kessler changed his style to beat Froch. The future will show.

 

He did it the right way. Trust me. Kessler never did any heavy lifting which in my opinion is detrimental to your speed.

 

I tend to agree with you, but I think that he fought like he did for this particular opponent. If he meets another kind of fighter then perhaps we will see the crisp boxer again. Still I actually think Kessler did really well and also performed some high high level technical skill under high speed and pressure. For example the short right that stuns Froch in round 7 was a real gem.

 

Nice quality posts, gentlemen. :good

Froch-Kessler was an action fight but since I'm not a Gatti type of boxing fan, it was not an awesome fight for me. Too sluggerish for me. But I understand that some of us like it like that. Boxing can brings things for every fan.