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Fri Nov 20, 2009 5:40 pm EST

Kessler gets California to 'even the odds'

By Steve Cofield

(Even Kessler can't figure out where JaMarcus Russell is throwing the ball)

Mikkel Kessler got his wish. The Dane voiced concerns earlier in the week that there were too many Californians involved in judging and officiating his fight against Andre Ward tomorrow night in Oakland. According to the Oakland Tribune, the California State Athletic Commission acquiesced and replaced one of the Californians with Swedish judge Mikael Hook. California's Steve Morrow is still judging the fight and the referee is California-based Jack Reiss. The other judge is South African Stanley Christodoulou.

The WBA was talking about not sanctioning the super-middleweight title bout if the situation wasn't addressed. On Thursday, The Copenhagen Post wrote that the decked was stacked against Kessler (42-1, 32 KO's) and Ward (20-0, ) was going to get "home cooking." Kessler's management also complained that Reiss was a bad choice:

Wilfried Sauerland, owner of Team Sauerland, told Sporten.dk."‘They’ve also picked a referee who’s never worked a fight at this level."

If Kessler beats Ward, he'll fight Carl Froch next to unify the WBA and WBC 168-pound straps. After that, the 30-year-old Kessler fights Jermaine Taylor. 


 

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40 Comments

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  1. Lincoln
    1. Posted by Lincoln Fri Nov 20, 2009 7:25 pm EST

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    I'm looking forward to this fight, tomorrow night. It should be entertaining, given what each fighter brings to the table. I hope Andre can perform to his fullest capabilities, which if he does, he has the right style to win. If Mikkel starts fast and is consistent in his attacks, he may psychologically break down ward and take him. All in all, good fight. My personal picks to fight for the super six tourney championship is King Arthur and The great Dane.
  2. julyfirehorse!
    2. Posted by julyfirehorse! Sat Nov 21, 2009 1:40 am EST

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    Wow..!!!...The celebrating of Pacman's win and dealing with the defiance of PBF fans would be short breather to focus on this fight with Kessler and Ward coming up....This one should be a 'Dandy"...!!!...
  3. Joe
    3. Posted by Joe Sat Nov 21, 2009 8:44 am EST

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    Now that is funny.. did you write that about jamarcus cofield?? that guy is a waste of a number one pick . he can take his $35 million and back up to mcdonalds and go for 350. what a lazy pos.
    rooting for ward. he can bang and i hope he catches kessler.
    i bet you kessler is standing to see a fight in the stands. that is the best action in raiders stadium on sundays. there used to be epoch, 12 on 12 gangbangers hashing it out at the coliseum in l.a. even the players would turn and watch. ahhh. the good ol raiders.
  4. MR.MVP
    4. Posted by MR.MVP Sat Nov 21, 2009 1:17 pm EST

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    Andre Ward needs to win or the tournament is over for the Americans!!! I wonder how Jermaine Taylor is doing now!!!
  5. julyfirehorse!
    5. Posted by julyfirehorse! Sat Nov 21, 2009 6:46 pm EST

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    It is curious to me that this tournament is nestled comfortably inbetween Paul Williams and Chad Dawson...I "believe" it is possible that Paul Williams and Chad Dawson will meet....It's just a matter of time which one will be the first to cross the Supermiddleweight divsion first....I see the possibilities of a Williams vs. Kessler or a Williams vs. Dawson that is... if Kessler beats Ward...
  6. julyfirehorse!
    6. Posted by julyfirehorse! Sat Nov 21, 2009 6:49 pm EST

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    Whoops....I also meant to say Kessler vs. Dawson...if Kessler gets past Ward...
    If Kessler loses to Ward...Then Ward may be up to these opportunities as well....
    Lets see what happens...
  7. Barry McCociner
    7. Posted by Barry McCociner Sun Nov 22, 2009 8:50 am EST

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    good to know there are 20 blogs about the UFC and their low-rent event they held last night while a title changed hands during the best athletic competition of the night.
  8. Ric Montana
    8. Posted by Ric Montana Sun Nov 22, 2009 8:55 am EST

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    Ward is the king of headbutts. Poor kessler he didnt have the chance for one lucky ko punch as ward rained him with headbutts. What a champion of headbutts. Ward can u win without ur head?
  9. Ric Montana
    9. Posted by Ric Montana Sun Nov 22, 2009 8:58 am EST

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    They r paid to do blogs at ufc. They prefer to blog the bar fights instead of real and entertaining boxing events. And yahoo wonders why boxing is dying.
  10. Magilla
    10. Posted by Magilla Sun Nov 22, 2009 10:38 am EST

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    Kessler got beat soundly and should just move on. Ward was just better that night.
  11. Da_Bay_Beast
    11. Posted by Da_Bay_Beast Sun Nov 22, 2009 6:52 pm EST

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    Kessler didn't get headbutted nearly as many time as he thought. But i wouldn't be able to count after getting my bell rung consistently with punches either. Kessler got outboxed, roughed up, and soundly beaten by a better fighter than he. PERIOD. The only reason Kessler was the favorite going into this fight is because of Ward's previous opponents not being great fighters. The only question mark was how tough Ward really is. Guess what - he just proved how tough he is by beating a man who has only been beaten once before by Calzaghe - and that was a close decision. He got mollywhopped all over the ring and would've been blown out the same as Floyd blew out Marquez and Manny would've blown out Cotto if he didn't win by TKO. Thoroughly dominated from pillar to post! Go Dre! Mop up the rest of the Europeans and Americans as well. Ward is now favored to win the tournament!
    Oh, and please find one elbow that Kessler got hit with. If you can i'll buy you dinner!
  12. Andre
    12. Posted by Andre Sun Nov 22, 2009 7:26 pm EST

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    Joe Calzaghe would still beat all these guys!
  13. kenneth
    13. Posted by kenneth Sun Nov 22, 2009 11:23 pm EST

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    super- middle weight tournament best idea in boxing. now if only the other divisions would do the same. one champion in each division is all we need. Boxing will be better for it!!!!!!!!!
  14. K NEL
    14. Posted by K NEL Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:26 am EST

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    Kessler got dominated in that fight. Bay Beast you're right he didn't get hit by one elbow. I don't really see how he even won any rounds on the cards. Hopefully my guy Taylor can be more competition against Ward.
  15. .
    15. Posted by . Mon Nov 23, 2009 11:09 am EST

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    It's funny how Kessler is complaining about the California judges and saying that they won't fight there again, yet Froch's win in Europe was a lot more controversial, yet you don't see the American fighters refusing to fight in Europe.
    And #12 - I wouldn't be so sure Calzaghe would beat all these guys. When this tournament is over, all these participants would have already fought better quality opponents than Calzaghe did for his entire career.
  16. Lincoln
    16. Posted by Lincoln Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:47 pm EST

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    This was a much more entertaining fight than I envisioned. I thought Andre was going to use his speed and reflexes to fight on the outside, and keep his distance. I'm glad he had confidence in his abilities to go toe-to-toe with Kessler. Like I said in my previous post, if Andre performed to his fullest capabilities he had the style to beat Mikkel, which he did. Now the tournament gets alot more interesting; if Jermain does keep fighting in the tournament, he will be alot tougher to beat than Mikkel was, he has great speed, technique and power. The only problem I see for Taylor is the accuracy that Ward delivers his punches with. If Ward land one clean, it could be lights out for Taylor again.
  17. K NEL
    17. Posted by K NEL Mon Nov 23, 2009 1:09 pm EST

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    Jermaine has already begun training for his fight against Ward. I agree with Lincoln that Taylor is going to be a tougher fight for Ward. Taylor's chin has been very suspect as of late but I think he can with stand the punches of Ward...if it doesn't gas himself out as always...if that happens..Ward might just win by KO...and that's tough and hard for me to say about Taylor...
  18. K NEL
    18. Posted by K NEL Mon Nov 23, 2009 1:12 pm EST

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    Calzaghe was scared of the elite competition at super middleweight and at light heavyweight. He should've fought Dawon but chose to retire. The super middleweight division is getting just as crowded as the welterweight division was. 6 top super middleweight in the super six and then there's the likes of Sakio Bika, Andrade, Bute, and Green. Super middleweight is stacked and primed for great match ups.
  19. Lincoln
    19. Posted by Lincoln Mon Nov 23, 2009 4:01 pm EST

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    If we had the same concept of the Super Six in some of the other weight divisions, these are some of the fighters that I think would be elected to throw down:
    Lightweight: Juan Manuel Marquez, Edwin Valero, Tim Bradley, Juan Diaz, Paulie Malignaggi, Jesus Soto-Karass, & maybe Lamont Peterson. Any picks for the favorite in this set up? I love Marquez's ring I.Q, and Valero's aggressive style.
    Welters: Manny, Sugar Shane, Berto, Paul Williams, Cotto, Clottey. I won't bother including Floyd, as this would be the opposite of what his entire career has been about- Facing the toughest opposition within his division. ** I am also including P Will, because until I hear otherwise, he can make this weight. Any picks for the favorite? The obvious picks I believe are going to be Manny, shane, and P Will.
    Heavys: Arreola, Chambers, Haye, Adamek, Kevin Johnson, & Povetkin (winner faces either Klitchko bro.) This is actually a very interesting list of matchups. Either one can make a legitimate case for why they would win. Any picks? I know Arreola already tried, and failed to beat a Klitchko, but I think he wasn't ready at the time.
    There's big gaps in weight divisions, I just wanted to name a few, and thoughts on how those would play out?
  20. .
    20. Posted by . Mon Nov 23, 2009 4:52 pm EST

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    Lighweight - JMM, might be at his best at this weight but Valero & Bradley winning wouldn't suprise me.
    Welterweight - Williams, if any of these guys were forced to fight him in a tournament, I think he'd come out on top. Though I think he'd win in most weight classes he fights in.
    Heavyweight - Probably Haye in that grouping. Though I dont think he beats either Klitschko.
  21. Andre
    21. Posted by Andre Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:40 pm EST

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    Calzaghe would have beat all these guys and knocked out Chad Dawson. Dawson doesn't have a chin. he reminds me of Tommy GLASS JAW HEARNS!
  22. Lincoln
    22. Posted by Lincoln Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:56 pm EST

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    If Calzaghe couldn't knock out an old BHOP and a shell of Roy Jones, what makes andreacemarshall think that he could have knocked out an in his prime, extremely talented fighter like Bad Chad? Unless you present some sort of credible debate, your comment is downright ridiculous. I'd understand if Calzaghe was a knock out artist, or just a power punching machine, then maybe I can see where you get that basis. The Calzaghe that I saw fighting would've been competitive with Chad, but I highly doubt he would've knocked him out!
  23. K NEL
    23. Posted by K NEL Tue Nov 24, 2009 9:40 am EST

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    Slapzaghe wouldn't KO anybody in the super six...besides..my boy Taylor that is...dammit...hate I had to say that...
  24. Andre
    24. Posted by Andre Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:08 am EST

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    Glen OVER THE HILL Johnson beat Chad in there first fight! As far as Calzaghe is concerned, no he didn't have a good fight against Roy Jones, even though the score cards were one sided in Joes favor. Look at his record and knockout ratio it speaks for itself. Calzaghe retired UNDEFEATED! Pacman at 147 would put a beating on Chad GLASS JAW Dawson. BUTTERBEAN, MARK CASTANO, and JERRY COONEY would give Dawson a good fight!
  25. .
    25. Posted by . Tue Nov 24, 2009 12:54 pm EST

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    Sounds like andreacemarshall is nothing more than a Calzaghe apologist who can't seem to find a good reason why Joe ducked Chad Dawson for so long.

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