Mikkel Kessler...

Thats the main question for me...

 

me too.

 

especially since he has the wba title now and has no reason to go headhunting miles from home

but he's done it before....going to australia and wales

 

Why wouldn't he age well? He isn't trying to do anything fancy or overly reliant on reflexes out there. He ain't gonna lose his jab, straight right, timing etc overnight. I would say he is at his peak right now, and he has hardly been hit pre-Calzaghe nevermind in a war so there should be some good years left.

As for his management, I'll judge by his next fight. If its not acceptable they should be criticised strongly.

 

I think Kess coped well with the surroundings. If you are not motivated 110% in surroundings like that you should'nt be in sports at all. You can argue that JC felt more pressure to deliver than Kess because of the hometurf, although I believe that, at the end of the day, Kessler needed a plan he just didn't have on the night. IMO Kessler had his first loss because of a lack of a plan B, not because he was overwhelmed.

 

kessler fighting for "that belt" instead of getting a much higher profile fight against miranda is mogens palle's idea of gaining kessler leverage and a 'nest egg' or security in boxing.

but - if he's going to defend it against B grade fighters he'll be forgotten on the world stage.

that's the one guys like taylor and pavlik have earned their credentials on and why they'll carry more clout than kessler.

you're putting way, way too much emphasis on belts. there's so many floating around that the general public doesn't know the A grade champs from the ones that are chasing them for leverage to bigger things - and that's what we're talking about here.

look at the guys taylor has fought. his resume has much bigger names than both froch and kessler put together because he's fighting good fights on the world stage.

if froch and kessler want to play on the same playing field they need to grab some PPV or more meaningful opponents.

 

forgot about mundine, cheers.

but wales and australia aren't going to bolster a fighter's weight at the negotiating table any more than fighting in denmark or germany (calzaghe fight being the exception to the rule because of it's importance and it was shown in the states).

make a name for yourself in the states and you make yourself more marketable for big fights.

if a fighter doesn't want to do that, then he should think about changing his name to junior witter.

 

i dont think pavlik would go near kessler at 168 and kessler cant make 160

and taylor has low confidence and wouldnt want kessler anytime soon....maybe in a few fights and that would be a good one

 

I am worried about his hunger for more.

He has made a lot of cash, and seems to be very content with what he has achieved. Many scandinavians tend to be somewhat lazy these days, I fear he might be happy just defending the belt he has now.

What do you Danes say?

 

I don't think thats the case. In every interview I've seen he's always mentioned big names. Not just as a token gesture, he actually had the tone of somebody that wanted it.

 

why do you think taylor has low confidence?

 

i live in denmark and kessler has stated he's not happy with the opponents he's fighting in the paers over here - but then again he doesn't seem to be putting the screws on palle to take some chances while he still has a name overseas.

 

2 defeats to the same fighter back to back, even with a change of weight and a change of trainer...thats gonna get you questioning yourself even if you're as good as he's shown to be before

 

that doesn't automatically give you low confidence. that's a character test for fighters.

on the flip side i could say kessler has low confidence but losing to calzaghe and now he's taken 2 steps down the food chain to fight fighters without a pulse again.

by your reckoning that makes kessler smaller, doesn't it?

because taylor's still fighting a higher grade of opponent like he always has done?