By Philip Michael Shange – Come Sept. 25, Allan Green will be the new WBC king – at least according to himself.
Champion Mikkel Kessler will defend his throne in Denmark against Green in the third stage of Showtime’s Super Six World Boxing Classic. And the challenger is looking for the knockout.
“I don’t see Kessler lasting the whole fight,” Green (29-2, 20 KOs) told Danish TV-station TV2. “Unless he brings something new to the table.”
Green – who entered the tournament as a late replacement for Jermain Taylor – is coming off a lopsided defeat to WBA champion Andre Ward. Despite the loss, Green is still in the running for a semifinal berth..
“That’s what I’m looking for,” he said. Mathematically, Green still has a shot. A knockout victory gives the winner three points, whereas a decision win yields only two. Five of the six participants are deadlocked at two points apiece, so he must claim the title by knockout.
But Green is facing some tough odds.
The iron-jawed Dane has never been stopped before – nor has he ever hit the canvas. Aside from the knockout factor, the odds get increasingly grimmer when one consider the fact that no visiting fighter has yet to pick up a victory in the Showtime tournament.
So if history is any indication, Green will leave Denmark empty-handed. Still, Green said home-field advantage will play no role in the matchup.
“It doesn’t matter to me where I fight,” he said. “In my opinion, it’s a coincidence that all the fighters fighting at home have won every fight. I have no problem coming to Denmark to face the champion of the world.”
Champion Kessler (43-2, 32 KOs) is coming off a Fight of the Year-candidate against Carl Froch in which he recaptured the WBC belt.
Before that epic matchup, Kessler, 31, had lost the WBA portion of the super middleweight title to Ward on technical decision.
The modified round-robin tournament includes a total of six top super middleweights including titlist Ward, former titlist Carl Froch, former middleweight champion Arthur Abraham and 2004 U.S. Olympic bronze medalist Andre Dirrell. Former undisputed middleweight champion, Taylor, withdrew after suffering brutal knockouts in consecutive fights.