Yeah, I don;'t think there is any hate. In another tread a poll asked us to vote for the boxer we preferred to watch at 168. Out of 8 choices (including Taylor, Bute, Andrade etc.) more than half the people voted for Kessler. In fact he got more votes than all the rest together. So I don't really think there is any hate towards Kessler at all. People like him and think very highly of Mikkel. The only thing that get people upset is that he is fighting too little and the two last fights have been against subpar opponents. We want to see him in the big fights.
The real story is that he didn;'t back out of the fight. He told Miranda that he would like the fight, but that he could make it happen on a bigger scale. Instead of the proposed fight Mikkel said that they would try to lobby for Miranda to be the official challenger (so that their fight could be for the vacant belt) and on HBO. After they had talked to HBO and HBO were happy and after they lobbied to get Miranda ranked (and he did) Miranda had in the meantime lost patiance and signed with Abraham. I don't know why Miranda did not want Kessler afterall. Maybe he didn;'t believe that Kessler was genuine, or maybe he saw some video tapes and decided that Abraham would be an easier choice. I don't know, but he lost any way and Kessler would have made it even harder for him. He would not have stopped him until round 10, but in those 10 rounds he would have been thoroughly beaten up.
So many hate Kessler for the same reason they hate the Klitschkos, Pavlik, Calzaghe, Valouev, Chagaev, Povetkin, etc.
I think many are frustrated to the point they dislike or hate him. Or they see his shiny reconrd and don't see anyone they've seen. **** em. I just wish he'd put himself into the position where he'd have to be on TV. But is he happy being a European star, just a Great Danish Champ (and I don not mean that in any disrespect), or does he want to conquer the US too? This is where he'll be immortalized. Partly the same thing that bothered me with calzaghe. I don't blame him for every fight he could have been in, but no matter what you know, they didn't happen. Don't want to see that with Kessler.
I don't think there is that much hate for Kessler. If you want an example of how much respect the guy gets, how about this: The term Pavlicker was invented to desribe my posting style, and I've said at least a dozen times that Kessler is the biggest threat to Pavlik's zero out there, yes a bigger threat than Calzaghe.
????? He has beaten Mundine, who was ranked #3 in the division by Ring and still is, Beyer who was about #4 and a fellow titleholder, Andrade who is ranked 4 even now as well as Lucas and Siaca, both former champs. If you look at the top f4 (excluding himself) as rated by Ring at the moment, Kessler has fought 3 and has beaten 2 of them. Obviously Calzaghe, if you still rank him at 168, has to be above him but who else?
Indeed. I don't know why this guy gets so much hype on here. He may have some entertaining KOs of clubfighter types, but it's already been shown he is not a top level fighter. His record at 168 reads two KOs of said clubfighters and a comprehensive chinning by a blown up middleweight!!!
Great post T!!! I agree with you all the way. Kessler can redeem himself after the Hausler fight but he has to start doing things to gain the respect of the hardcore fan. Fighting stiffs in Denmark is not going to win him any respect. The ball is in his court he needs to make us care about his career and drilling Tomato cans just doesnt cut it!!!
Being the closest thing to a local hero, I always root for him. I really hope he gets a high-profile fight in the US soon - he needs that to please us! :yep That being said, Sartison was no pushover, and haussler his mandatory, so its pointless to ctitsize him for those fights.
People like to hate, since there is no Joe at MW anymore so the natural way is to pass the hate into the #2 guy.
The hate is because he turned down a fight vs. Miranda (a B-level fighter) to fight Mundine (an A- fighter). Of course Mundine gave his belt up so Kessler fought the unknown (therefore a bum according to these forums) Sartison and now fights Haussler (who's a mandatory though, it wasn't Mikkel's choice). Of course no was really cares that Mundine is better than Miranda and it was Mundine's choice to RUN from Kessler and give up his belt, but the choice was a pretty bad career move because Mikkel turned down a US TV fight and appeared only on European channels. And some people just simply hate him because in him Calzaghe beat the young lion Hopkins failed to do vs. Taylor, and that allows Joe to simply don't give a f* about Pavlik. Kessler is bigger, physically stronger and better skilled young fighter than Pavlik therefore no need for Calzaghe to proove that he can still proove it vs. the young generation. :hi: :thumbsup