The fight, which on paper is perhaps the most competitive of the year, was
confirmed on a bright June morning at promoter Frank Warren’s Sports Network
offices in Hertfordshire. The specifics had still to be agreed and multiple
negotiations remained. There was no venue, no television deal and no
agreement from the opponent but the most significant aspect of the meeting
between Warren and world super-middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe was
conclusive. “I want to fight Mikkel Kessler next,” Calzaghe said to his
promoter. “Nobody else.” No more reality TV contenders, time to get real.
If Peter Manfredo, the overhyped product of Sugar Ray Leonard’s Contender
series, was the easiest defence of Calzaghe’s decade as World Boxing
Organisation (WBO) titleholder – the 26-year-old American did not land a
noteworthy punch before he was stopped in three rounds in April – Kessler
has the credentials to be the toughest.
It is 17 years since Calzaghe last lost, on points in the European junior
championships in Prague against Adrian Opreda from Romania. He has beaten
Chris Eubank and five other champions of the various sanctioning bodies in
his unbeaten 43-fight career. My colleague Hugh McIlvanney described his
performance last year against the hard-punching American Jeff Lacy as “one
of the greatest displays of superb technique, confidence and fighting
intelligence a British boxer has delivered in a major contest”.
A southpaw with quick hands, a strong chin, athleticism and pride, Calzaghe
has outlasted 14 rival titleholders, cleaning out his division and provoking
Bernard Hopkins, the world’s leading light-heavyweight, to call on him to
move up to the 12st 7lb division. But one last challenge remains to the
35-year-old Welshman’s supremacy at 12st.
Kessler, 28, from Copenhagen and the holder of the World Boxing Council (WBC)
title and World Boxing Association (WBA) belts, is an accomplished boxer
with a record of 39 straight wins and 29 stoppages. One of his victims, Eric
Lucas, a 34-year-old Canadian veteran of almost 50 bouts when beaten on
points by the Dane in January 2006, described Kessler as “the best boxer
I’ve ever faced, apart from Roy Jones”.
The Viking Warrior, as he calls himself, is no mug. His most recent contest, a
12-round annihilation of Librado Andrade, a California-based Mexican, drew
20,000 spectators to Copenhagen’s Parken stadium, where he boxed beautifully
behind his jab and thoroughly dominated his opponent. Although he proved
tough and durable, Andrade could not have been more obliging in making
Kessler look good, and criticism could be levelled at the Dane for not being
able to put away a clearly outclassed foe, despite him administering a
prolific pounding.
In his previous bout he knocked out Markus Beyer in the third round with a
devastating right to the jaw to win the WBC title, but the German was
clearly a shot fighter. “He’s fought good fighters, ex-titleholders like
Lucas and Australia’s Anthony Mundine, but he’s not beaten or even faced
anyone exceptional,” Calzaghe insisted on Friday after 10 hard rounds of
sparring with the WBO cruiser-weight titleholder and stablemate Enzo
Maccarinelli. “I’m not underestimating him and I’ve worked hard to prepare
for the fight but, to my mind, Andrade and Beyer were perfect opponents for
Kessler to look good against.”
Unquestionably so, but Kessler’s pedigree is good nonetheless. As an amateur,
he won 44 of his 47 bouts and a handful of Nordic titles. He left school at
16 to work as a mechanic with Mercedes but never completed his
apprenticeship. Mogens Palle, a Danish promoter, recognised his talent and
when it came to a choice between Mercedes and an offer to become a
professional fighter, the decision was easily made. Speaking ahead of his
arrival today in the UK, Kessler said: “In Denmark, boxing is not the
biggest of sports. Football, obviously, is the biggest and the money we make
as fighters doesn’t compare to what footballers make [he is believed to be
earning £2m to face Calzaghe, who is reportedly being paid slightly more].
But now I’m well-known through my fights and I have a big following.”
He announced himself by winning the WBA title in November 2004 when Puerto
Rico’s Manny Siaca did not come off his stool for round eight, having been
out-boxed and hurt through much of the previous seven. In June 2005 he made
his first title defence against Mundine in Sydney, the Australian’s home
city, and won comfortably over the 12 rounds, betraying not a hint of
reticence to engage on foreign turf.
“Calzaghe is a good technical boxer but when he comes forward he has a
tendency to look down, and this is not good. You need always to keep your
eyes on your opponent,” Kessler suggested. “I watched Calzaghe against
Kabary Salem, who hit him with a lucky punch and he went down, and it wasn’t
a great performance. I also boxed on the same bill as Calzaghe on the
undercard of Mike Tyson-Brian Nielsen when he fought a nobody [Will
McIntyre]. I’m not afraid because I never fear my opponent. I respect him
but I’ve gone to Sydney to beat Anthony Mundine, so I know I can do the same
in Cardiff. The key to fighting Calzaghe will be to box smart.”
But Calzaghe is no Mundine, and boxing smart in front of a crowd of more than
50,000 when the first bell rings at 1.15am next Sunday morning at the
Millennium stadium will not be easy for the Dane. He is taller by an inch
and seven years younger than Calzaghe, but the Welsh champion has yet to
show any signs of physical decline or of diminishing hunger.
Kessler will be the 21st opponent he has faced since he claimed the WBO title
from Eubank but his mentality is to approach every fight as if he is the
challenger. “I’ve never made that mistake or fallen into the trap that other
champions have,” Calzaghe said. “I’m proud of holding the title for such a
long period and I want to end my career with meaningful fights against
Kessler and, hopefully, Hopkins. But as soon as I go into training I feel
like I’m a challenger again, which is how I prepare. More than anything
else, this is the secret.”
Calzaghe may have to come through the toughest battle of his career against an
opponent equipped with formidable enough tools to threaten an upset, but
after 12 rounds he should feel like the champion again in the Principality.
Tale of the tape
Joe Calzaghe Hometown: Newbridge Age: 35 Record: 43-0
(32KO) Height: 6ft Reach: 73in n The longest-reigning champion
in boxing, he won the WBO super-middleweight title against Chris Eubank on
October 11, 1997
- Has made 20 successful title defences, five short of Joe Louis’s record
- ‘My mum actually got me a job once in the bakery where she worked, putting
stickers on these cakes, like a robot. It got to 11 o’clock on my third day
there and I went on a tea break. “Don’t be long,” the supervisor shouted
after me but I never returned. . . I just didn’t want to work, I wanted to
box’
Mikkel Kessler Hometown: Copenhagen Age: 28 Record: 39-0
(29KO) Height: 6ft 1in Reach: 73in n Won WBA super-
middleweight title in November 2004, stopping Puerto Rico’s Manny Siaca.
Added WBC title in October 2006 with third round KO of Germany’s Markus
Beyer
- ‘I was training as a mechanic with Mercedes. I like racing cars and I have a
Yamaha motorbike which I ride in the summer but I never finshed my
apprenticeship because I became a fight’
