Mikkel Kessler will be ringside for Pavlik vs Taylor

Kessler is overrated. He has terrible balance.

 

Well, if he isn't here just to enjoy the fight, he would probably be here to size up Taylor, so maybe we will find out. Sure, Taylor will be coming off of two losses, but both to the same person, so I'm not sure it would matter. Kessler wasn't on Arum's radar when he blurted out some names of possible bouts for Pavlik. Lots of speculation, too few matches.

 

Kessler did some exellent counterpunching versus Calzaghe - as long as Calzaghe was his usual agressive self Kessler was holding his own, but then Calzaghe changed to a more defensive strategy and Kessler failed to adapt. I think present day Calzaghe is far too good for Hopkins - a prime Hopkins would have been a good fight - but 43 years old Hopkins - Calzaghe UD (unless of course Calzaghe freezes away from home against a good opponent and not for the WBO-belt)

Calzaghe's opponents could have been better - but then again he faced most fighters worth facing in his period and strangly none of those was able to capitalize on Calzaghe being so open.

I'll give you that Kessler is the type to take chances - he never had to - against Calzaghe he should mayby have taken more chances - mayby. In round 12 he did. Could it have changed the outcome - I doubt it - Kessler didn't lose because he didn't take enough chances - he lost because he(and his corner) couldn't adapt to Calzaghe's plan B. Hopefully Kessler has learned his lesson.

 

Kessler is on a promotiontour - unless he can make more of a name for himself in the US he isn't going to get any of the big fights. Sure he can fight his way to titles - but the big fights aren't the titlefight anymore - the big fight are the ones TV wants to pay for - and without a good name in the US Kessler isn't selling - belts or not...

He is not the to see the fight - he is there to be seen

 

Thats a fair post, I got nothing against Kessler, I feel he's a good fighter that just froze a little bit under the pressure. Calzaghe fought a good fight, but not the masterpiece he did against Lacy, where he made little to no mistakes. Kessler did land a few counters, especially some well timed uppercuts. Hopkins is past his prime, but he still possess a great counter right, a punch Hopkins could land at will against Calzaghe. It will be an interesting fight, that many will be shocked to see how close it ends up being.

 

I agree he did freeze a bit, but his trainer had alot of negative affect in this (not to make stupid excuses at all). He told Kessler over and over Punch Hard (load up), You're behind! More Pressure! Loading up in that fight would be the stupidest thing ever, and he had to make the strategy all alone. He started off well, but Calzaghe adapts so well, and i cannot see Hopkins standing a change against him. Hopkins might start well, but slowly will be outboxed and outworked.

 

Ringside in the audience or replacing one of the HBO commentators?

 

All of you guys saying 'feather fisted Calzaghe', 'Kessler hurt by Calzaghe'.

Did you know that he's stunned just about every opponent that he's faced?

A lot of guys with good chins too, when he really sits down on a shot, it's pretty hard.

 

You could be right, but watching alot of Hopkins latest fights, he was able to pour it on during the second half of the fight. Against Taylor during there first fight, I had Hopkins winning 5 out of the last 6 rounds, almost putting Taylor down in the last round. Hopkins also came on strong against guys like Oscar and Winky as well, where he used great rough house tactics to slow wright down and get the victory in the end.

Hopkins will use everything in his arsenal to try to pull out the victory in his toughest fight in years, if he could slow Calzaghe workrate down and land his lead right hand often, I see him getting the decision on the cards, but only time will tell if he could do it or not.

 

Well it's harder to fight "perfect" when the opposition is harder - Kessler also fought perfect against Andrade

 

:yep

 

I believe that Kessler will come back a stronger fighter for his loss

 

If he does that, i'll be impressed considering how good he was before. I've wrote to Team Palle, saying that they should get a move on and all they answered where:
Thanks for your mail.

Kessler will be back in the ring.

 

No way . It won't happen

 

BTW: Is there any links where it says that he will be ringside?

Edit: found it myself.