Lets evaluate Kessler after this fight

It is not career threatening to have been defeated by a superstar. What Kessler did Saturday night would have beaten most other opponents.

 

Kessler took two world titles with complete ease, barely breaking into a sweat. A sure sign he is quality.

Calzaghe might well be the best boxer of all time. He is certainly top 20, that is beyond all doubt.

 

I think Bute has more power than Kissler...

 

r u 4 real?

 

Good one:rofl

 

Kessler really has nothing to be ashamed of - he lost to a great fighter and made a decent account of himself. Certainly not the same kind of loss Jeff Lacy suffered.

Should Calzaghe move up to 175, I consider Kessler the best at 168 by far, and probably the future in the weight class because of his age and the longevity he may have thanks to his style. Kessler has all the tools to become the dominant champion post-Calzaghe and I think he will establish himself as a great fighter. Look at a young Hopkins loss to Roy Jones and what he was able to accomplish afterwards. I'm not saying Kessler reaches Hopkins' level of greatness, but he has potential to really rule 168.

I still have him in my top 15 pound for pound

What would take Kessler to another level is if he shortened up his left hook, worked on a straight lead right hand, and became a solid/consistent body puncher

 

Kessler really loses nothing for what he did last night. If anything, he showed he is actually a quality fighter, not just hyped.

 

Don't be so silly. Bute couldn't punch his way out of a wet paper bag

 

Why do you attribute the competitive nature of the fight too Calzaghes poor performance rather than Kesslers ability?

Sure he didnt adapt too well, but he gave it to the division king for 12 rounds of hard boxing in his FIRST super fight.

I know you have seen a fair bit of him, but I think many people have only seen little clips of him and write him off because he lost.

 

your not going to convince anyone that kessler is as overated as you say...he may be overated for the sake of the argument but honeslty you are UNDERating him...

 

A fighter can't prove he's the top dog until he fights the top dog. Kessler is a top shelf world class fighter. Calzaghe is an all-time great. That is a major gap.

 

By no means was Kessler dominated and I will not sit here and believe that u weren't nervous at any point during the fight. Calzaghe himself saw from the getgo that kessler was different from any fighter he had ever seen and he wasn't his usual blistering self until he started to pick up on the chinks in Mikkel's armor that he could exploit. There was a lot of nervous energy in that ring for the first few rounds and neither fighter had managed to dictate the action.

You can offer explanations of the technical kind all u want but in the end Joe was just the better man and the pressure that he applied just became too overwhelming for the Dane. He went to another level against a guy who would have beaten any other super middleweight in the world with his performance. Of course Kessler was gonna have trouble adapting to Joe's style. There's none like it in the world and that's why Joe is still undefeated. Kessler was dangerous from start to finish (his punches never lost steam) but Joe was just better and I had no idea that his chin was that sturdy. To say that Kessler was overrated is just being ignorant and it does Joe no favors to say that he beat another overrated fighter when his level of opposition has been questioned for so long.

 

i dont think so, Mikkels Punches are shorter thrown that Lacys and Jeff was THAT SLOW. i am afraid.

Mikkel does have big flaws in his game, but he makes up for them with short punching and top notch power.

/Theo

 

Perhaps Calzaghe was only at 70% because Kessler is a very good fighter?

Of course not, everyone knows that what one fighter does has no bearing on how the other guy performs? :-(