Mikkel Kessler (born March 1, 1979)
is a Danish Former Professional boxer. He is a four time super middleweight
world champion, having won the WBA title three times, unifying this
with the WBC title, and later winning the WBC title for a second time.
Early
life
Kessler was born to a Danish Father and an English mother, Ann,
who hails from Salisbury, Wiltshire. He began his vocation early,
training in boxing gyms at age 13.
Amateur career
Kessler competed
five years as an amateur (2/93-1/98). He finished his amateur career
with a record of 44 wins and 3 losses. He won the 1995 European
Cadet (15-16 age group) Championship, 1996 and 1997 Danish Junior
Championships, the 1996 Nordic Amateur Championship, and in his last
amateur bout won the 1998 Zealand International Tournament after stopping
all 3 of his opponents.
Professional career
Kessler originally
campaigned as a light middleweight and then middleweight for the first
22 fights of his career. He won 16 of his first 22 fights by knockout
(KO).
After 3 years and 22 fights, Kessler settled in the super
middleweight division. Kessler continued his hard hitting streak,
dispatching 6 of his first 7 opponents by KO, thereby inproving his
record to 29-0 with 22 KO.
On 29 November 2002, Kessler fought
for his first championship and defeated former WBC Super Middleweight
Champion Dingaan Thobela over twelve rounds to become the International
Boxing Association Champion. He gave up this belt to fight for the
more recognized WBC International title on April 11, 2003, versus
Craig Cummings. Kessler won by a knockout in the third round.
He
defended his title against Anthony Mundine in Sydney in June 2005
and Eric Lucas in January 2006.
On October 14, 2006, Kessler
was elevated to WBA Super Champion status after winning the WBC title
in a unification battle against WBC World Champion Markus Beyer at
the Parken stadium. He won by knockout at 2:58 in round 3.
Kessler
defended his WBA (Super) and WBC titles on March 24, 2007, at the
Parken stadium against WBC mandatory challenger Librado Andrade. The
fight was scored as a shutout (120-108) by all three judges.
Kessler
vs Calzaghe
Kessler then met fellow undefeated champion, Welshman Joe
Calzaghe, in a bout that would unify his WBA and WBC super middleweight
championships with Calzaghe's WBO and The Ring titles. The bout took
place at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on November 3, 2007, in front
of over 50,000 fans (then the largest indoor boxing event in European
history), and Kessler lost the unification bout via unanimous decision,
with the judges scoring the fight: 117-111, 116-112, 116-112.
Second
Reign
After Calzaghe vacated the WBA title to move up to light heavyweight,
Kessler was put in a match with Dimitri Sartison on June 21, 2008,
for the vacant belt. Kessler knocked out Sartison in the final round
to regain his title.
Kessler successfully defended his title
against Danilo Haussler by third round knockout on October 25 and
against Gusmyl Perdomo (16-2, 10 KOs) by fourth round knockout on
September 12, 2009, one minute into the round.
In November 2009
the WBA once again promoted him to Super Champion, this time prior
to unifying any Super Middleweight titles.
