Mikkel Kessler (born March 1, 1979) is a Danish professional boxer. In his professional career he has a record of 41-1 and 31 knockouts. Mikkel Kessler is the current WBA supermiddleweight champion of the world.

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Biography

Kessler was born to an English mother and Danish father. He originally started campaigning 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 improving his record to 29-0 with 22 KO.

On November 29, 2002, Kessler fought for his first championship and defeated former World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Dingaan Thobela over twelve rounds to become 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 newly won crown on three occasions before finally hitting it big on November 12, 2004. His stablemate, Mads Larsen, another Danish World Class fighter, was set to challenge Manny Siaca for the World Boxing Association championship in Copenhagen. Larsen was injured in training and Kessler took the fight on short notice, winning the title.

Kessler 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/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 then met fellow undefeated champion Joe Calzaghe. 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 was a unification bout for the WBO/WBA/WBC/Ring Magazine super middleweight titles. Kessler lost the unification bout via unanimous decision, with the judges scoring the fight: 117-111, 116-112, 116-112 ^[1].

Kessler faced Dimitri Sartison on June 21, 2008, for the vacant WBA super middleweight Title. Kessler won the match by knockout in the 12th round.

Kessler successfully defended his title against Danilo Häussler on October 25, 2008 with a 3rd round KO victory.

Kesslers next opponent will be against Gusmyl Perdomo(16-2, 10KOs)on September 12th.

See also

References

1. Calzaghe v Kessler as it happened