By James Slater: Danish hero Mikkel Kessler showed absolutely no ring-rust in making his return to the ring last night in Copenhagen. The 32-year-old former three-time 168-pound champ (and current WBC Champion Emeritus) crushed the gutsy 29-year-old from France in the 6th-round, having sent him to the mat twice in the session.
In light of all the other punishment he’d taken in the previous rounds – when he was sent to the mat a few other times, with only Bouadla’s courage keeping him in the fight – the referee had no choice but to wave off the brutal beating. The official time was 2 minutes and 25-seconds of the 6th and Kessler is now 44-2(33). In being stopped for the first time in his pro career, Bouadla is now 22-4(10).
Okay, Bouadla may have been the ideal comeback foe for a Kessler who had been out of action since his April 2010 points win over Britain’s Carl Froch, but it’s still tough to find fault with the way “The Viking Warrior” worked. Looking as sharp as can be, putting all the punches in his vast arsenal to work and showing a great work-rate also, Kessler looked as though he’d never been away!
His jab, his right hand and his left hook and left uppercut working extremely well, Mikkel also went to the body of his tank-like opponent. Caught on occasion with the odd head shot, Kessler’s chin held up fine to the rare punch that tested him. Many good judges felt beforehand that Kessler would have to be content with a rust-removing points win against Bouadla. Yet, as his fans saw, Kessler had no rust to remove, and he decided he wanted to make a statement as a result. This he did with the stoppage.
Kessler is back, and the whole super-middleweight division had better realise this!
Judging by last night’s performance – which took place in front of one massive and deafening crowd – Kessler has plenty left to offer at age 32. Let’s hope now that that prospective fight between he and IBF champ Lucian Bute goes ahead this year. Kessler’s done his part in seeing off Bouadla; Bute now must get past Jean-Paul Mendy. Providing the Canadian star does the business against the unbeaten Mendy on July 9th we will have a great match-up to look forward to.