Mikkel Kessler: How good is he...

[PrideOfWales]

really?

[MrMagic]

He's really good, and if Calzaghe beats him, its obviously his best win and he's jumped a few good places in p4p in my book :bbb



-wooh, now I can get a new avatar, 3 month bet just ended.. phew.. been three long months!-

[LeedsLad]

Very good. He has tremendous boxing skills, good power and speed. He doesnt have any glaring weaknesses, so it will take someone very good to beat him ie Joe Calzaghe.

[Nawfal]

he is really good i would say he is an a grade fighter

but we havent seen him tested

[youthmann]

we will se the 3 nov....

[PrideOfWales]

Has he ever been troubled by anything in a fight?

[andyZOR]

-wooh, now I can get a new avatar, 3 month bet just ended.. phew.. been three long months!-

Get a sweet Tomasz Adamek avatar like me! :D

[Maden]

Nobody really knows!

[Zakman]

Not good enough.

[pugilistspecialist]

Kessler is big for a supermiddleweight at 6'2", has very good fundamentals and boxing ability, but has excellent power and speed. He fights fairly square like conventional euro fighters but he bit more fluid than most. He hasnt been tested with this type of fighter yet. Andrade, Beyer, and Mundine are good contenders and former champs but arent nearly on Calzaghe's level though. We will see how good he is win he fights Calzaghe who is more seasoned and has actually won when the chips were down and through adversity.

[dragosuhail]

the reason why i've never seen kessler flustered or hurt is great chin etc. BUT the secret lies in the fact he is a quality athelete WHO DOES NOT FORGET what got him to the top.

many times great fighters lose focus and drop their skills, defence etc because it's easy for them.

kessler is unique in that he could box another 10 years, and would still practice the fundamentals and never take stupid shots because he's too lazy to hold his hands up. might be great for the fans to see him in a gatti-ward type fight, but that level headed approach means to date he has virtually never lost a round, aside from some extremely close and debatable ones to mundine (i actually thought kessler won every round in that fight. maybe mundine won a round, but still not bad when kessler was not in 100% shape, because of a bad back injury!)

also kessler has a lot of ko's. not tko's but clean cut ko's.

[bumdujour]

better than librado andrade......but not quite SRR....

[PeterNielsen70]

I think he's going to shock the world by beating Calzaghe relatively decidingly.

Perhaps.

Try and watch the guys footwork and stance closely in the Andrade fight. Pure class. :bbb

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[pugilistspecialist]

the reason why i've never seen kessler flustered or hurt is great chin etc. BUT the secret lies in the fact he is a quality athelete WHO DOES NOT FORGET what got him to the top.

many times great fighters lose focus and drop their skills, defence etc because it's easy for them.

kessler is unique in that he could box another 10 years, and would still practice the fundamentals and never take stupid shots because he's too lazy to hold his hands up. might be great for the fans to see him in a gatti-ward type fight, but that level headed approach means to date he has virtually never lost a round, aside from some extremely close and debatable ones to mundine (i actually thought kessler won every round in that fight. maybe mundine won a round, but still not bad when kessler was not in 100% shape, because of a bad back injury!)

also kessler has a lot of ko's. not tko's but clean cut ko's.

Calzaghe has more knockouts offically, anyway, Kessler hasnt faced a fighter where he didnt have all if not most the advantages. Yes he has fundamentals but every fighter gets careless in there so I wont anoint him as the king mechanics(thats arguably Winky Wright). Anyway Kessler is the bigger guy. Both have great chins(Calzaghe has faced harder punchers), Calzaghe is a southpaw and will be the first guy Kessler will have trouble speed against. Mundine is fast but he doesnt throw the combinations and isnt consistent with his movement as Calzaghe. I give Kessler the edge in power. What the key here will be..............Heart and Desire. When two fighters are equal in talent, intangibles such as heart, stamina, and poise come into play. How will Kessler react when he isnt winning most the rounds and has to dig deep, or has to get up off the floor and survive. Calzaghe has fundamentals, natural talent, and proven intangibles. This fight will prove what Kessler is made of

[Amsterdam]

He's fantastic, a future P4P elite. You don't get too much more skilled than Kessler is at his respective style.

But, he's not as good as Mijares.:D

[brooklyn1550]

Kessler is a phenominal fighter. He has great speed and great accuracy. He punches in combinations and has a jab similar to Tommy Hearns. Kessler also has an excellent sense of distance and his ring generalship is world class. When Calzaghe calls it a career, I think Kessler will be the top guy at 168.

[red cobra]

If Calzaghe wins against Kessler, then everyone, however grudgingly must revise their p4p lists. I think it's generally aknowledged that Kessler is a formidable, upper tier fighter, and if Calzaghe wins, which I am not sure that he will, then veryone can't go trashing Kessler like they did Lacy just to explain it away.

[PrideOfWales]

I'm not trying to trash anyone with this thread but I get the impression a lot of people are championing Kessler without having seen many of his fights. To me, Kessler is a massive unknown quantity. I saw the Beyer and Andrade fights on Youtube and have seen snippets of him against Mundine but it didn't answer too many questions. Obviously, his Danish fans have seen a lot of his fights and I respect (some of) their opinions, but I can't buy into the "you'll see on November 3rd just how good he is" theory based on what I've seen of him so far (albeit limited amounts). The one thing most people agree on is regarding his power. It's generally regarded that Kessler has more power than Calzaghe. To me, Kessler's power seems to come from his right hand after landing a good solid jab. History has shown us that Calzaghe is never troubled by the jab - nobody has ever been able to box their way in against Joe. The times that Calzaghe has been in trouble (against Eubank, Reid, Salem and Mitchell), he's been staggered or put down by booming lottery punches whilst he's been on the attack. There is the argument that Calzaghe has never faced a boxer as skilled as Kessler and this has good credit, but I've never seen Calzaghe even vaguely troubled by anyone trying to box their way in. To say that Kessler can achieve this with the pace he likes to fight mystifies me. What Kessler has got is enormous self belief, real confidence in himself and has displayed good solid boxing fundamentals without being spectacular. Maybe he can raise his game to yet higher levels - he will certainly need to if he's to be victorious in this fight. For me, he has to show things that he's not shown before: a willingness to take a few shots on the way in, good heart and ability to trade toe-to-toe are key for him. If he does have the edge in power, he'll have to be able to use it on the inside because Joe won't be there at the end of his fists on the outside.

As I said, I have only seen limited amounts of Kessler and I'm not totally dismising his chances. Calzaghe is old and I don't think he's been in with someone as skilled as Kessler in a boxing sense. But to me, I don't think that will be enough because Joe is just as skillful and furthermore, has a proven chin. If Kessler can genuinely win this fight with Calzaghe somewhere near his best (which he will be provided the hands stay healthy and he's not shot) then he will be something quite special in my opinion. But, as I said, he has got to show a lot more nous than I've seen from him so far.

Going back to Calzaghe's scares, forget the Eubank fight (Joe was caught late on after almost punching himself to a standstill early on - put it down to youth) and the Salem fight (messy divorce - mind not on the game). Calzaghe has only been in trouble twice that's worth pointing out when it comes to planning to beat him. Reid got to him. There was a history there and Joe hated Reid with a passion. Forget the broken hand, Calzaghe's mind wasn't totally on boxing that night, he just wanted to waste Reid and he lost the plot a bit. There's a bit of friendlyness between Calzaghe and Kessler so it's not going to affect November's fight. So that leaves Mitchell. Mitchell hit Joe with a right hand that would have KO'd even Andrade and any other SMW that night. It was the perfect punch. Kessler needs to get to that kind of range to be effective. Lacy's power worried Calzaghe, that's why he stayed away from it all night. It seems silly to say it but I think if Kessler lands a good powerful punch early on to get Joe's attention, Calzaghe will be happy to move on the outside, coming in and out to land his exceptionally fast slap/pitty pat punches on Kessler's gloves all night and win a comfortable UD. If Kessler has as much power and accuracy as some say, he can draw Calzaghe in by taking what Joe has to offer and BOOM - end it early. Kessler by KO/TKO is a lot more likely than Kessler on points. But in my opinion, still a lot less likely than a Calzaghe UD12.

I don't want to get into trashing each others records, quality of opposition, amount of KOs vs TKOs etc etc... This is what I genuinely think. Please don't accuse me of being a blind Calzaghe nuthugger either. Your constructive comments however, are appreciated.:good

[Ramshall1]

top level boxer-puncher IMO, when he was way ahead on points against Andrade and kept going for the finish he made a fan here.