Mikkel Kessler

Mikkel Kessler
Statistics
Real name	Mikkel Kessler
Nickname(s)	Viking Warrior Hitman Simply the Best
Rated at	Super middleweight
Nationality	Danish
Born	March 1, 1979 (1979-03-01) Copenhagen, Denmark
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	47
Wins	45
Wins by KO	33
Losses	2

Mikkel Kessler (born March 1, 1979) is a Danish professional boxer and former two time WBA & WBC Super Middleweight champion. In his professional career he has a record of 44–2 with 33 knockouts. Kessler, who holds the dinstinction of facing two of Britain's best contemporary fighters, has traded leather (and titles) with fan favorites Joe Calzaghe (L 12) and Carl Froch (W 12).

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 fought three years as an amateur. He finished his amateur career with a record of 44 wins, and three losses. He won the Danish Championship five times in addition to the Norwegian Championship and the Scandinavian Championship.

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 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 (WBC) 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 title 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.

Second Reign

Kessler faced Dimitri Sartison on June 21, 2008, for the vacant WBA Super Middleweight regular title. Kessler won the match by knockout in the 12th round.

Kessler successfully defended his title against Danilo Häussler, KO3 on October 25, and against Gusmyl Perdomo (16–2, 10KOs), KO4 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.

Super Six

His first fight was against Andre Ward on November 21, 2009 for Kessler's WBA Super Middleweight Championship in the Super Six World Boxing Classic. On November 21, 2009 Kessler lost his championship to Andre Ward. The fight was stopped in the eleventh round due to cuts on Kessler's face caused by what was deemed unintentional headbutts by Ward. The fight went to the scorecards and Ward was far ahead by scores of 98–92, 98–92, and 97–93 at the time of the stoppage. Many observers were disappointed with Kesslers performance against Ward, the ways in which he was exposed in his defence, movement and the ability to fight on the inside were evident in the fight, questions rose about his retirement from boxing after the loss, however Kessler wanted to prove his worth with a huge test against Carl Froch then the current WBC world champ.

On April 24. 2010 Kessler returned to form against Britain's undefeated WBC Champion Carl Froch, a match that was called "a classic" and "one of the best matches in Danish boxing ever." The contest went the distance and Kessler was handed a unanimous decision with scores of 115–113, 116–112, and 117–111. With the win Kessler became a two time WBC Champion, handing Carl Froch his first defeat in the process.

Andre Ward later praised Kessler tremendously in an interview with fightnews.com, calling Kessler "skill wise...the toughest I’ve fought so far". Ward went on to express admiration over Kessler's career and dispelling any criticism after his own victory over Kessler. "People want to put down Mikkel Kessler because of our fight but he’s proven himself. He’s proven that if he loses a title he can come back and become champion again, he did that after our fight so now he’s a three time world champion. Anybody that can win a world title three times and only have two losses in the process says a lot. He’s a great fighter and I give him a lot of credit and I have a lot of respect for him."

On August 25, Kessler announced he was withdrawing from the Super Six tournament due to the worsening of the eye injury he suffered in his fight against Ward. According to Ekstra Bladet newspaper, Kessler stated he was seeing double. Doctors told him he must take a nine month break from boxing.

The Comeback

Mikkel Kessler suddenly announced his comeback, and fought against Mehdi Bouadla and scored victory by TKO. Mikkel claimed that if he had lost this fight he would retire. He is now scheduled to fight against Robert Stieglitz in Copenhagen, Denmark at Parken Stadium.

Other

On Volbeat's album Beyond Hell/Above Heaven there is a song dedicated to Mikkel Kessler named "A Warrior's Call" which contains the lyrics "The viking warrior Mikkel Kessler". Also in which he provided vocals for the line "fight, fight, fight, fight", as revealed in the International EPK Video.

Kessler is sponsored by Jack&Jones clothing and can often be seen wearing the brand whilst training and as well on his underwear and shorts at weigh-ins and fights.

Kessler is the younger brother of adult model and actress Linse Kessler.

Professional boxing record

44 Wins (33 knockouts), 2 Losses, 0 Draws
Result	Record	Opponnent	Type	Rd., Time	Date	Location	Notes
N/A	N/A	Robert Stieglitz	-	- (12)	2012-04-14	Parken Stadium, Copenhagen	For WBO super middleweight title.
Win	44–2	Mehdi Bouadla	TKO	6 (12), 2:25	2011-06-04	Parken Stadium, Copenhagen
Win	43–2	Carl Froch	UD	12	2010-04-24	MCH Messecenter Herning, Herning	Won WBC super middleweight title.
Loss	42–2	Andre Ward	TD	11 (12), 1:42	2009-11-21	Oracle Arena, Oakland, California	Lost WBA super middleweight title.
Win	42–1	Gusmyer Perdomo	TKO	4 (12), 0:51	2009-09-12	MCH Messecenter Herning, Herning	Retained WBA super middleweight title.
Win	41–1	Danilo Haussler	KO	3 (12), 1:08	2008-10-25	Weser-Ems-Halle, Oldenburg, Niedersachsen	Retained WBA super middleweight title.
Win	40–1	Dimitri Sartison	KO	12 (12), 2:00	2008-06-21	Brøndby Hall, Copenhagen	Won vacant WBA super middleweight title.
Loss	39–1	Joe Calzaghe	UD	12	2007-11-03	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff	Lost WBA & WBC super middleweight titles. For WBO & The Ring super middleweight titles.
Win	39–0	Librado Andrade	UD	12	2007-03-24	Parken Stadium, Copenhagen	Retained WBA & WBC super middleweight titles.
Win	38–0	Markus Beyer	KO	3 (12), 2:58	2006-10-14	Parken Stadium, Copenhagen	Retained WBA & won WBC super middleweight titles.
Win	37–0	Eric Lucas	TKO	10 (12), 1:51	2006-01-14	Brøndby Hall, Copenhagen	Retained WBA super middleweight title.
Win	36–0	Anthony Mundine	UD	12	2005-06-08	Sydney Entertainment Centre, Sydney	Retained WBA super middleweight title.
Win	35–0	Manny Siaca	RTD	7 (12), 3:00	2004-11-12	Brøndby Hall, Copenhagen	Won WBA super middleweight title.
Win	34–0	Andre Thysse	TKO	11 (12), 1:32	2004-06-11	K.B. Hallen, Copenhagen	Retained WBC International super middleweight title.
Win	33–0	Julio Cesar Green	KO	1 (12), 1:20	2004-03-13	Brøndby Hall, Copenhagen	Retained WBC International super middleweight title.
Win	32–0	Henry Porras	TKO	9 (12), 2:46	2003-10-24	K.B. Hallen, Copenhagen	Retained WBC International super middleweight title.
Win	31–0	Craig Cummings	KO	3 (12), 1:09	2003-04-11	K.B. Hallen, Copenhagen	Won vacant WBC International super middleweight title.
Win	30–0	Dingaan Thobela	UD	12	2002-11-29	Falconer Centret, Copenhagen
Win	29–0	Dean Williams	KO	1 (8), 1:58	2002-11-08	Falconer Centret, Copenhagen
Win	28–0	Gerard Zdziarski	TKO	8 (8), 2:33	2002-10-04	Holbæk Stadion, Holbæk
Win	27–0	Orlando Javier Acuna	TKO	7 (8), 0:10	2002-05-24	Aalborg Kongres & Kulturcenter, Aalborg
Win	26–0	Arthur Allen	TKO	6 (8), 0:52	2002-03-15	Viborg Stadionhal, Viborg
Win	25–0	Manny Sobral	TKO	5 (8), 0:10	2002-02-08	Falconer Centret, Copenhagen
Win	24–0	Fernando Hernández	TKO	2 (8), 1:30	2001-11-16	Roskilde Hallerne, Roskilde
Win	23–0	David Mendez	UD	6	2001-10-13	Parken Stadium, Copenhagen
Win	22–0	Rodrigues Moungo	KO	4 (6), 1:09	2001-04-27	Aalborg Hallen, Aalborg
Win	21–0	Miguel Julio	KO	3 (6), 0:30	2001-03-09	K.B. Hallen, Copenhagen
Win	20–0	Patrick Rubes	KO	2 (6), 0:45	2001-02-09	Odense Idraetshal, Odense
Win	19–0	Tony Menefee	TKO	6 (6), 1:36	2000-09-01	Kolding Hallen, Kolding
Win	18–0	Kevin Hall	KO	2 (6), 2:41	2000-04-28	K.B. Hallen, Copenhagen
Win	17–0	Tom Younan	KO	3 (6), 1:35	2000-03-31	Esbjerg Stadionhal, Esbjerg
Win	16–0	Israel Ponce	KO	2 (6), 2:59	2000-03-04	Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada
Win	15–0	Charles Whittaker	KO	3 (6), 2:30	2000-02-18	Aalborg Hallen, Aalborg
Win	14–0	Sidney Mxoli Msutu	UD	6	2000-01-14	Kolding Hallen, Kolding
Win	13–0	Jean Paul D'Alessandro	UD	6	1999-05-04	Cirkusbygningen, Copenhagen
Win	12–0	Jose Maquina Rojas	KO	2 (6), 2:10	1999-04-16	K.B. Hallen, Copenhagen
Win	11–0	Alejandro De Leon	UD	6	1999-03-19	Falconer Centret, Copenhagen
Win	10–0	Jaime Balboa	KO	6 (6), 2:13	1999-02-12	Falconer Centret, Copenhagen
Win	9–0	Dean Martin	UD	6	1998-11-27	Vejlby-Risskov Hallen, Aarhus
Win	8–0	Anthony Ivory	UD	6	1998-11-06	K.B. Hallen, Copenhagen
Win	7–0	Edwin Murillo	KO	2 (6), 2:34	1998-10-16	Aalborg Hallen, Aalborg
Win	6–0	Sammy Sparkman	KO	1 (4), 1:54	1998-09-18	Sundbyoster Hallen, Copenhagen
Win	5–0	Terry Clark	KO	1 (4), 2:35	1998-09-04	Kolding Hallen, Kolding
Win	4–0	Rick Stockton	KO	1 (4), 2:16	1998-06-05	K.B. Hallen, Copenhagen
Win	3–0	Alex Lubo	UD	4	1998-05-01	Kolding Teater, Kolding
Win	2–0	Michael Corleone	TKO	3 (4), 2:40	1998-04-03	Holbæk Stadion, Holbæk
Win	1–0	Kelly Mays	KO	1 (4), 1:09	1998-03-20	Vejlby-Risskov Hallen, Aarhus	Professional debut.

See also

See also: Joe Calzaghe vs. Mikkel Kessler

External links

• Mikkel Kessler Fight-by-Fight Career Record
• Professional boxing record for Mikkel Kessler from BoxRec
• Mikkel Kessler – The Viking Warrior official page

Preceded by Manny Siaca	WBA Super Middleweight Champion November 12, 2004 – October 14, 2006 Promoted	Vacant Title next held by Anthony Mundine as Regular Champion
Vacant Title last held by Sven Ottke	WBA Super Middleweight Champion Super Champion October 14, 2006 – November 4, 2007	Succeeded by Joe Calzaghe
Preceded by Markus Beyer	WBC Super Middleweight Champion October 14, 2006 – November 4, 2007
Vacant Title last held by Anthony Mundine	WBA Super Middleweight Champion Regular Title June 21, 2008 – October 21, 2008	Promoted
Preceded by Joe Calzaghe as Super Champion	WBA Super Middleweight Champion October 21, 2008 – November 3, 2009 Promoted	Vacant Title next held by Dimitri Sartison as Regular Champion
Vacant Title last held by Joe Calzaghe	WBA Super Middleweight Champion Super Champion November 3, 2009 – November 21, 2009	Succeeded by Andre Ward
Preceded by Carl Froch	WBC Super Middleweight Champion April 24, 2010 – September 7, 2010 Status changed: Emeritus Champion	Succeeded by Carl Froch