Kessler vs. Ward Preview
20th November, 2009
WBA super-middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler from Denmark, is getting ready to start his Super Six Classic campaign on Saturday night against American Andre Ward.
The bout is the last one of the first phase of fights after Arthur Abraham knocked out Jermain Taylor and Britain’s Carl Froch defended his WBC super-middleweight title with a point’s decision over Andre Dirrell last month.
The fight was put in jeopardy when Kessler complained about the referee and two of the three judges being from California which is Ward’s home state. However the dispute has been resolved with one of the American judges being replaced by a Swede.
The fight is expected to be an exciting one as Kessler has only lost once in his 43 fight career to British star Joe Calzaghe on points two years ago. After the Welshman vacated the WBC and WBA Super middleweight titles, Kessler regained the WBA title last year, while Carl Froch won the WBC title.
The 25 year old Andre Ward, captured Olympic gold in the light-heavyweight division in Athens five years ago. He is the only American boxer to have claimed a medal in the last three Olympics and since then gone on to establish a 20 fight unbeaten career as a professional.
After American fighters Taylor and Dirrell both lost Ward will be hoping to re-establish some American pride and especially for the organisers of the event Showtime who are based in the U.S. Ward told BBC sport "I know the Europeans have some good fighters, but we Americans, we're still a force to be reckoned with."
M. Kessler is 1/2 with Stan James while A. Ward is 19/10 with gamebookers. The draw is 25/1 with a host of bookmakers.
By Dane
