How to improve Kessler?

:good good post!

 

Kessler also should have been going to the body, I cant actually recall him throwing one hook to the body. That would be my plan, take JC's legs away from him with a sustained body attack, as I dont think Kessler was able to stop him. KD yes, but I think Joe would always get back up, and when he's hurt the dog in him comes out and he sits down on his punches more... meaning the advancing fighter looking to finish can get KO'd himself.

 

He is still young and there is time. Take a fight easy fight first up and if he need to move up to 175.

 

Kessler threw some good hooks to the body which hurt JC; he needed to throw more body punches though and more punches in general. According to compubox numbers, Kessler threw 585 punches to Calzaghe's 1015.

Kessler should work on body punch combinations, tighten up his left hook, improve his fitness so he can throw 1000+ punches a fight, and his footwork so that he's in position to unleash his punches.

Great right uppercut though; Calzaghe never saw that coming :!:

 

I dont think you can train to throw a 1000+ punches at these weight classes. I'd harbour a guess that these guys are at physical peaks and an improvement ratio of almost 100% is asking the impossible. I dont know what his output is normally like though, so maybe it is possible, but throwing 1000+ punches is a massive ask for any fighter, especially when you are getting hit yourself.

I thought Kesslers fitness was very good, right up until he became a bit gun shy after the half way point, then as he started to get a little bit of momentum Calzaghe literally would punch it out of him. He just seemed confused most of the time with the angles and speed Calzaghe was using and I said to one of my friends watching it that the body shot in the 8th really seemed to hurt him.

A rematch would be good, Kessler has now seen things in Calzaghe that he can exploit, but I think while Kessler has a solid chin and rarely seemed hurt with shots to the head, his body looked the opposite. He seemed not to take well to any body shots and the only shot I remember seeing Joe sit down on was the one in the 8th that visibly hurt Mikkel. Still, he'll be back and will dominate the weight class and most likely 175lbs if he moves up.

 

There will be no rematch; Calzaghe's said that he hates rematches and that Kessler's only going to get better. Mario Veit gave Joe an argument in their rematch after being sparked in one round in their first fight; what would Kessler do in a rematch?

Kessler will need to work on his resistance to body shots, because future opponents will now see that as a potential weakness to exploit. So that's another area to work on.

Calzaghe's always had great body shot resistance in addition to an iron chin. How can Kessler improve his body shot resistance?