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WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel “Viking Warrior” Kessler is scheduled to fight Andre “Son of God” Ward in the Super Six World Boxing Classic Saturday night at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.
No matter what the outcome of this weekend’s matchup, Kessler (42-1, 32 KOs), a Danish pugilist, will matchup against WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch in the near future.
Ward (20-0, 13 KOs), who became the first American boxer in eight years to win a gold medal when he accomplished the feat as a light heavyweight at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, lives and trains in Oakland and he will inevitably have the hometown crowd in his corner over Kessler.
Ward, 25, is a tremendous talent and he exhibited some of his seldom seen power this past September when he defeated Shelby Pudwill by TKO in the third round.
Still, Ward remains largely untested as a professional and it will be difficult for him to overcome Kessler’s vast experience in the ring.
In November 2007, Kessler fought retired undefeated champion Joe Calzaghe in a super middleweight unification bout at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium in Wales.
In front of over 50,000 rabid fans, Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KOs) soundly defeated Kessler and was awarded a unanimous decision victory that still haunts the “Viking Warrior” to this day.
“I’ve come all the way over here to Oakland and I’m 150 percent ready for the fight. I’ve had good preparation and I am in unbelievable shape,” said Kessler. “I had a loss against Joe Calzaghe and it still tears me up today, so I’m not thinking about losing anymore.”
Ward said he has been waiting for this fight since he was a child and he knew he would enter the contest as an underdog.
“I want that WBA belt really, really, really bad,” said Ward, who was born across the Bay from Oakland in San Francisco. “You know I always seem to be the underdog but I embrace that.”
Ward has all of the necessary tools to be a champion prizefighter.
Unfortunately for Ward, he is too inexperienced as a professional pugilist to trump a seasoned prizefighter like Kessler.
Ward will remain very competitive with Kessler and the fight will likely be determined by the score cards.
However, Kessler is “not thinking about losing anymore” and he won’t be defeated again in three days.
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