Who Has The More Impressive Resume? Sergey Kovalev, Carl Froch Or Mikkel Kessler?

As an outspoken huge fan of all three of the men in question, I think I'm the right man for the job to get to the bottom of this and come to the most accurate non-agenda driven conclusion. Also, as I'm sure most of you could probably surmise, I can't stand Andre Ward. But he beat them all, it is what it is. Oh well. He'll go down as greater than all three. But he'll never have the fans hearts and minds like they did, so it all balances out now doesn't it?

Okay, I'll get on with it.

Mikkel Kessler's Wins
Carl Froch - Beat Froch in a somewhat controversial FOTY contender personally I think rightfully. Froch is his best win easily.10/10

Markus Beyer - Decent opponent, had wins over Danny Greenx2 DQ & MD, Woodhall & Sheika. A TD draw against Bika and a win loss and win over Sanavia and a KO loss to Catley. 6/10

Anthony Mundine - UD'd Mundine, who'd already been violently KO'd by Sven Ottke and lost by SD to Siaca. His best wins are over Solimanx3, Green, Geale. Epitome of a hot and cold fighter. 6/10

Librado Andrade - Big claim to fame, almost stopping Bute in the 12th, then being KO'd in 4 in the rematch. Has decent wins over Stieglitz & Mack. Went on to be KO'd by Bryant and lose to Pryor Jr. 5/10

Dimitri Sartison - Was a WBA champion, with no notable wins going in. Beat Gevor and Bilak later. 4/10

Manny Siaca - Lost to Byron Mitchell twice, lost to Green, Girard, Branco and Rohan Murdock. Big claim to fame, he beat Mundine. 3/10

Allen Green - Big claim to fame, losing to much better fighters. He lost to Ward, Johnson via KO, Edison Miranda and Caparello. But he does have a win over a 2-0-1 Ola Afolabi. 3/10

Brian Magee - Washed up nearing retirement thrice KO'd thoroughly tenderized Reid & Froch victim. 3/10

Mikkel Kessler's Losses.
Joe Calzaghe - Was competitive for the first 4 or 5 rounds, got increasingly one sided as match continued.

Andre Ward - Lost every round, granted Ward headbutted him throughout 5 times in total, disgusting, unpleasant, infuriating fight, but Kessler didn't have anything for Ward regardless.

Carl Froch - Rematch was competitive in spots, but Kessler's heart wasn't in it, Froch used his jab well, won comfortably, and Mikkel retired afterward.


Carl Froch's Wins.
Mikkel Kessler - Past prime Kessler nearing retirement, looking for cashout type fight, not as significant as it should have been. Kind of sad in retrospect. 6/10

Lucian Bute - Decent win, has wins over a slew of so so to decent SMW's like Miranda, Johnson, Andradex2, Mendy, Joppy, Zuniga, Mock, Brinkley and Bika. Got Froch'd like a mother****er. Went on to lose in one sided fashion to Pascal, and while competitive lose to DeGale and Jack via post drug test failure DQ. Then got KTFO and retired by Eleider Alvarez. Was Bute a hypejob or the real deal? A little of both. 6/10

Jean Pascal - One of his best wins, most of Pascal's more notable accomplishments came post Froch loss. Went on to beat Dianocu x2, take the 0 of Bad Chad Dawson, then went onto to draw and lose to The Alien Bernard Hopkins. Then beat Bute. Then get beaten within an inch of his life twice by Kovalev, who reduced him to a journeyman for a while, dropping decisions against Eleider Alvarez & Bivol, but taking the 0's of Elbiali and more notably Marcus Browne. Solid win. 9/10

Andre Dirrell - Very controversial SD win, arguably should have been his second L. Dirrell's best win going in, hauling ass for 12 against Curtis Stevens, a win over Hanshaw who was coming off of losing to RJJ's shell. Went on to snag two post KTFO controversial DQ wins over AA and Uzcategui, also lost to DeGale and Uzcategui via corner stoppage. 6/10

George Groves 1 - Ridiculously controversial stoppage, Froch was dropped hard early, went on to lose almost every round, score late TKO stoppage, waaaay too soon. Groves best wins, DeGale (controversial), Chudinov, Eubank Jr. Paul Smith. Murray, Johnson. Went on to lose to Badou Jack and Callum Smith. Solid win. 7/10

George Groves 2 - Another nip and tuck match, with Froch edging more rounds this time than the last, rectified the debacle in the first by brutally one punch KOing Saint George this time around. 7/10

Arthur Abraham - AA was just not cut out for SMW. He was great at MW, but probably should have had two L's by then, the Miranda match was a despicable robbery, and of course the DQ to Dirrell. He did KO Taylor, but that was a post Froch obliterated version whose chin was gone. Abraham post Froch schooling, went on to either controversially win or barely lose to almost everyone hes fought since. This one has aged terribly. 5/10

Jermaine Taylor - Arguably got two gifts against B-Hop, and a gift draw against Winky Wright. Was thoroughly pulverized by The Ghost Kelly Pavlik twice. Post Froch loss, got KTFO cold by AA. He was an okay MW, who had no business at SMW. 5/10

Glen Johnson - Pesky uber road warrior journeyman, stopped by B-Hop years earlier. He gave Froch issues, but the right man won. Glen's best win, KOing the **** out of RJJ, post Tarver KO. And beating Tarver himself. Way past his sell by date. 5/10

Brian Magee - Post Reid and Tsypko losses, Froch was the first man to stop him. But he wasn't that good. 4/10

Robin Reid - 5 losses, way past it, win kind of worthless at that point. 4/10


Carl Froch's Losses.
Mikkel Kessler - First loss, covered above.

Andre Ward - Had noting for Ward, lost almost every round, actually tried late, but by then it was too little too late.


Sergey Kovalev's Wins
Eleider Alvarez - Impressive shutout victory against the man who stopped him violently the first time around. Who was coming off of KTFO of Kovalev and Bute, dominating Pascal, beating Chilemba, Prieto, Liebenberg and Alexander Johnson. 8/10

Bernard Hopkins - Legend coming off of a good run and great form, with solid wins over Pascal, Shumenov, Murat and taking the 0 of Cloud. Kovalev dominated him in a way that no one had dominated him before, winning every round of the fight in one sided fashion. Not only was the win good, but the manner of the win was even more impressive. Also came damn close to stopping Bernard in the 12th. 9/10

Jean Pascal 1 - Everything I wrote in the Froch rundown counts for double here, because he's still the only man to stop the walking talking definition of iron chinned and teak tough Pascal, not once....... 9/10

Jean Pascal 2 - .....but twice. He also dominated him in a way that no onehad before, not even Froch or Hopkins, both of which were close matches. 9/10

Nathan Cleverly - Clev took the 0's of Tony Bellew, made Braehmer quit, dominated Karpency, Murat, Kuziemski, Mohammedi, Krasniqi. One of the better Light Heavyweights the UK has produced in recent memory. Post Kovalev, he stupidly moved to Cruiserweight and lost to Bellew, still went the distance though, and had a FOTY war against Fonfara, which arguably was a draw. 7/10

Isaac Chilemba - Isaac has a very tricky resume, he should have far more wins than he's credited for. An argument can be made that Chilemba has one of the best resumes at Light Heavyweight, he's been the recipient of some pretty shoddy decisions, he has wins over Vlasov, Caparello, Lepikhin, Grachev and Ngumbo. And now onto his controversial matches, Chilemba beat Bellew in the first match, I had it 7-5 for Chilemba, the commentators were totally biased as usual, the draw wasn't a complete robbery, its better than a loss, regardless Chilemba should have edged it, however in the rematch Bellew won on the scorecards easily, yet I thought that match was a draw, so Chilemba was robbed of that, count that as two robberies against Tony. He fought the undefeated Eleider Alvarez to a draw on the scorecards of many and took another loss, his draw with Oosthuizen was supposedly a robbery also. There's a legit argument that could be made that going into his match against Kovalev, Chilemba should have been an undefeated fighter. He's been stopped and UD by Gvozdyk and Bivol since. 6/10

Vyacheslav Shabransky - Decent Ukrainian who took the 0's of Paul Parker and Todd Unthank May, should have been the man to take the 0 of Yunieski Gonzalez, since arguably he should have had a draw against Pascal. Solid Euro level guy, his only loss was to Sullivan Barrera. Kovalev destroyed him. 5/10

 

Anthony Yarde - Thoroughly unproven at the world level with a few decent wins over guys like Sjekloca, Averlant, Reeves, Sek, Sequiera and Nemespati. He was the first man to stop both Sek and Sjekloca and stopped Nemespati three rounds quicker than Callum Smith. Highly touted young fast prospect. Has the chin, speed and power, sadly lacked skills. 6/10

Gabriel Campillo - Another great Euro level guy, was robbed brutally against Cloud, went one and one with Shumenov, took his 0, probably should have won the second time as well. Got robbed against Murat, has wins over Mock, Garay, and took the heart and 0 of Top Dog Thomas Williams Jr. 5/10

Nadjib Mohammedi - Damn good underrated slippery tricky as hell Euro level guy, with solid wins over Ngumbo, the only man to stop him. Zoulika, Mouhoumadi, Shkrupa, Amar and was recently robbed of a career defining win against Fedor Chudinov. Glass cannon, but hard to look good against. Kovalev squashed him like a bug. 4/10

Igor Mikhalkin - Solid Euro level guy, took the 0 officially of Oosthuizen, and has 3 wins over Ngumbo in France & Kasperski. He's tricky and a solid win. Not great but not bad. 5/10

Blake Caparello - One of the best Australia has to offer, which isn't saying much. Has wins over Broadhurt, Dessaix, Berridge, Pryor Jr., Sharp, Papuni. Not great, lost to Chilemba and Dirrell since by UD. Krusher crushed him in 2 almost literally, with a body shot. 4/10

Lionell Thompson - Solid American journeyman, post Kovalev has wins over Earl Newman, Steve Lovett, Don George, and should have beaten Paul Parker who got a gift in their match. Before Kovalev he had a damn close SD loss to Radivoje Kaladzjic. Also had a close match against La Bomba Rodriguez. 4/10

Ismael Sillakh - Renown glass cannon, loses every time he stepped up via KO. But Kovalev KO'd him better than the rest. He did take Despaigne's 0. 3/10


Sergey Kovalev's Losses.
Eleider Alvarez - Violently KO'd in 7 in a back and forth match, didn't prepare adequately, had a drinking problem beforehand, paid the price. Got redemption in one sided rematch.

Andre Ward 1 - One of the most controversial decisions of the 2010's. Should have been the man to take the 0 of the great Andre Ward, who has wins over Kessler, Froch, Abraham, Dawson, Barrera and Bika. And Kovalev's career defining victory. Even the close rounds that you could give Ward were 51/49 type affairs. Both men took about 6 rounds with a KD which should have made the difference. The match is a masterpiece from both men,if anything, fans of Ward should just concede, Kovalev took him to the limit, did better than anyone ever did against him, and should give him either equal credit for the performance, or rate Kovalev on even terms in the first match. Because it only serve to make Ward's resume beter in the long run. You praise the guy that should have beaten him, not run him down. That's pretty ****ing stupid.

Andre Ward 2 - Deplorable lead up to the match with his trainer working as a spy, fouling low blows from Ward, and the ref and judges on his side. But whatever, Kovalev should have prepared better, and fouled him back when he did it. Bone headed strategy. That being said, before the stoppage the match was far closer than most seem to want to acknowledge. With most rounds with barely nothing between the two men.

So let's see. Kessler is automatically out of the discussion. No need to even debate there.

Now onto Froch vs. Kovalev in terms of resume.

Based on name recognition alone.... Froch slightly edges it. But based on actual quality of victories, performances and method of said victories, Kovalev edges it.

Think about it. Froch struggled mightily with and arguably lost to Dirrell, was outboxed by Kessler and Ward. Was being outboxed by Groves and Taylor before his come from behind stoppages. Then in his matches against Pascal and Johnson, they were both back and forth matches which were 7-5 in Froch's favor. Neither were blowouts by The Cobra. His most defining wins were over Bute and Groves 2. He won both in spectacular fashion. But the rest were all struggles. Not to mention most of Froch's opponents were either blown up Middleweights or went on to crap out and do absolutely nothing afterward.

Kovalev on the other hand has dominated everyone he's ever shared the ring with that he holds a victory over. Including two stoppage wins over one of Froch's best wins in Pascal. A win over Hopkins is far more impressive than a win over Dirrell, Kessler or Johnson. The wins over Alvarez, Chilemba and Cleverly were every bit as good as his wins over Bute, Groves and Abraham.

Also, people love to count losses on resumes. Well... let's count them.

Froch's losses were to Ward and Kessler. Neither debatable. He should have had a loss to Dirrell. He avenged his loss to Kessler, a past prime shot version.

Kovalev's loss to Ward. Is arguably a WIN. The other was far more decisive. Then he avenged his loss to Alvarez. But a prime not shot version.

So when you factor is losses, Kovalev's loss to Ward in particular, in the history books will go down as far more impressive and valiant a loss than anything on Froch's resume. And his revenge win was also far more impressive, especially when you consider Kovalev is the shot fighter getting revenge on the fresher younger guy in the equation, not the other way around.

It's a close call. But yeah, based on names Froch's looks all sparkly and nice.

But based on actual performance, exemplary immaculate skillset and quality of wins.


Kovalev takes it rather it handily.

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