Kessler's KO of Green..

I have to correct you there IB, this fight was not a part of the Super Six. Kessler had withdrawn after his win over Froch, due to his eye injury. Green was eliminated after losing to Ward and Johnson.

I actually attended the Kessler-Green fight, and it was a BIG deal here. As you have mentioned, Kessler looked way past his best. This went over the heads of a lot of my fellow Danes however, mostly because of the vicious KO.

And to think, a whole year later he would give Froch another tough fight in a respectable UD loss.

 

As a dane, Kessler were the main reason i started watching the sport. First memory i have were back in 2007 at the age of 12, when he boxed Calzaghe, as PPV in Denmark. He then had some decent wins, before entering the Super Six tournament as the favorite, with his first fight against a young prospect in Andre Ward. First time i saw the flaws in his game. Ward were a dirty boxer in that fight with numerous headbutts, which surely didn't help Kessler in the fight - but he lost to a better boxer and would have lost once again if they would've boxed once more.

Then he had the huge fight vs Froch in Denmark five month later, for me the biggest boxingmatch in my days in Denmark. Arguably an ATG fight at SMW, a close decision, but i do think Kessler deserved the win. After the fight he withdrawn from the tournament with a career threatening eye-injury dating back to the Ward fight five month prior. Kessler at this time past-prime with several injuries throughout his career had to sit out for more than a year, before he faced a journeyman - Mehdi Bouadla - which he dominated and won. That were supposed to set up a big fight with Robert Stieglitz for the WBO SMW title, but he had to withdraw with another hand-injury.

Nearly a year later he had this fight with Green - both boxers past prime, but Green the bigger guy. Kessler looked more rusty than i'd ever seen him before. He got rocked and went down in the first, before taking control in the 3rd before this knockout of the year contender in the 4th. 7 month later he fought Brian Magee - one of the weakest champs in a long time i'll say - Kessler dominated the fight and dropped Magee with body punches several times before the ref waved it off in the 3rd round. Kessler were the only hope for us in Denmark for a world class boxer at that time, but he really didn't have much left. Three (or four? :/) time world champion at that time. Froch thought Ward were afraid of him, so in order to revenge the other loss on his record, he challenged Kessler. Kessler prob knew it was the biggest money and legacy fight for him at that moment. He went to London and the O2 to face an older competitor, but deffo a competitor closer to his prime. Froch came of two knockout wins and absolutely destroyed the supposed big dog in the division at the time, Lucian Bute.

Kessler had his moment in the fight and made it somewhat competitive, but Froch did win decisively at the end. 118-110 from Adalaide Byrd (cough - 118-110 Canelo - cough) didn't reflect the fight though. Kessler didn't fight for the next two years and announced his first retirement in 2015. Though i miss Kessler as we don't have anyone in Denmark near that level, i'm glad he didn't come back. He did announce his comeback in the beginning of 2017, but got Lyme disease later that year which postponed his comeback. Early 2018 he finally decided to retire his comeback plans - he didn't have the motivation and the lyme disease gave him the last push to officially retire once again.

Kessler weren't a top p4p fighter at any time IMO - but he did consistently for almost 10 years rank as one of the best SMW's in the world. In the 'Kessler time' from 2004 - 2013 i'll only rank Calzaghe and Ward higher than him in SMW. I'll rank Kessler 3rd above Froch.

Viking Warrior! -

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Just for perspective - since Kessler fought the last time in 2013, the biggest name or talking point we've had in danish boxing are Patrick Nielsen. It's so bad that Nielsen now are challenging our olympic silver medalist wrestler from Rio 2016 and current MMA fighter, Mark O. Madsen, in an MMA fight - for the money and the spotlight. Gotta appreciate a boxer like Kessler, don't know when or if Denmark will get another champ like him.

 

Yes I remember that fight, kessler was looking like he was ready to go earlier

 

ah he was a solid man, only 32 i believe. But the lymes took away his chance to carry that forward.

 

Mikkel is very anti-environment it seems. Knocking over Green whereever and whenever he comes across it.

 

I think you got the facts wrong here.

Kessler was diagnosed with lymes in September 2017. At the time he was 38 years old and had not fought since his loss to Froch more than 4 years earlier.

Earlier in 2017, he had announced his plan to fight again, and was actually in training when hit with the lymes. The disease set him back many months - and eventually made him change his mind about the comeback. To the relief of all Danish boxing fans - who would have hated to see Kessler, a decade or so past his prime, in the ring again!

 

ah you are quite right, thank you for pointing it out Bukkie.

Sorry chaps, I thought Kess was a bit younger.

 

Any idea what he died of ?? I cant find it anywhere, it just says " Short illness" everywhere I look

 

I believe it was kidney cancer.

 

thank you, one thing I will say is he got old looking really fast,so obviously he had a s very stressful time (or just unlucky in the gene pot for young looks maybe).

 

What a pathetic post, pointless and weird

 

Cheers Bukkake