By Michael Collins: Mikkel Kessler (44-2, 33 KO’s) will have to downsize his ambitions a bit on Saturday night by going after the WBC Silver light heavyweight title against contender Allan Green (31-3, 21 KO’s) at the Parken, Copenhagen, Denmark. The Silver strap is just yet another one of the WBC’s many titles they have for fighters to go after.
Kessler, 33, no doubt would like nothing more than to go after an actual world title, but since he’s moving up in weight to the light heavyweight division for the first time, he’s going to take things slowly by going after the lesser titles.
This will be only Kessler’s second fight in the past two years, as he’s been chronically out of action due to one injury after another. If he makes it to Saturday’s bout without sustaining a fight postponement I’ll be more than happy. He was supposed to have fought WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz, but twice Kessler was unable to go due to hand injuries.
In Kessler’s last fight, he defeated Mehdi Bouadla last year by a 6th round stoppage. That was exactly 11 months ago. Before that, Kessler had been out of action since April 2010. As you can see, Kessler has become a part time fighter with him spending extended periods of time out of the ring. If he keeps up at this pace he’ll only fight three times in the next three years, and by then he’ll likely be aged to the point where he’s no longer relevant.
The Green fight is a step up fight for Kessler at light heavyweight to get the rust out and to get a feel for the division. Kessler needs to not only beat Green but dominate him the way that Andre Ward and Glen Johnson did to him.
Kessler wants to get a title shot against WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson. If he can’t get one against him, he’ll have settle for the less well known champions Nathan Cleverly, Beibut Shumenov or Tavoris Cloud.