Friday 20 November 2009

Kessler all set for Ward defence

BBC Sports

Denmark's Mikkel Kessler will defend his WBA super-middleweight title against Andre Ward on Saturday after a row over officials was resolved.

The fight's title status was in doubt after Kessler complained about the assignment of two judges and a referee from Ward's home state of California.

But one of the Californian judges has been replaced with a Swede.

The bout is the third fight in the Super Six Classic, which also involves Nottingham's WBC champion Carl Froch.

Froch edged past American Andre Dirrell in his tournament opener last month, while Germany's Arthur Abraham knocked out another American in Jermain Taylor.

Kessler, 30, has held the WBA belt for most of the past five years, although he did lose it to Welshman Joe Calzaghe in March 2007 before reclaiming it last year.

That defeat to Calzaghe is the only blemish on his 42-1 record, which includes 32 knockouts.

The 25-year-old Ward is the only US boxing champion to come out of the past three Olympics and has built a 20-0 (13 KOs) record since claiming light-heavyweight gold in Athens in 2004.

Tournament organiser Showtime will be keeping its fingers crossed for a Ward victory after defeats for both Dirrell and Taylor, and Ward says he "wants to do his part for America" with victory over Kessler in his home town of Oakland.

Ward said: "I know the Europeans have some good fighters, but we Americans, we're still a force to be reckoned with."

Source: news.bbc.co.uk




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