By Lem Satterfield, FanHouse
Denmark's Mikkel Kessler dethroned WBC super middleweight (168 pounds) champion, Carl Froch (above, at right), of England, by unanimous decision on Saturday in a bloody, all-out battle as part of Group stage No. 2 of Showtime's Super Six Super Middleweight World Boxing Classic before Kessler's partisan fans at Denmark's MCH Arena in Herning, Denmark.
Kessler was awarded the victory, 117-111, 116-112, and, 115-113, on the cards of the three, ringside judges, Roger Tilleman, Daniel Van de Wiele, and, Guido Cavalleri, respectively.
In victory, the 31-year-old Kessler rose to 43-2, with 32 knockouts, and improved his overall record in Denmark to 40-0, with 30 knockouts in a bout that will be shown on a tape-delayed basis on Showtime on Saturday night at 9 p.m.
Kessler rebounded after being dethroned as WBA champion after November's lopsided, technical decision loss to 26-year-old Andre Ward (21-0, 13 KOs), of Oakland, Calif.
The 32-year-old Froch slipped to 26-1, with 20 knockouts in a fight that Per Ake Persson, who was at ringside for BoxingScene.com, called "A fight-of-the-year war."
According to a ringside report by Ben Dirs of BBC Sport, Kessler was bleeding from a badly cut left eye, and Froch, from the nose, at fight's end.
Kessler was down in the fifth round, but referee, Michael Griffin, ruled that the man who is nicknamed, "The Viking Warrior," had slipped.
After a fairly evenly contested fight over the first six rounds, Kessler's jab became more prevalent starting in the seventh.
Kessler briefly pinned Froch on the ropes in the eighth round, and caused bleeding from the Englishman's nose in the ninth, even as Froch opened and targeted a cavernous cut on the Danish fighter's left eye near the end of that same round.
Froch was coming off of October's split-decision victory over 26-year-old southpaw, Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KOs), of Flint, Mich., who rebounded with last month's lopsided, 11th-round disqualification victory over Germany's 30-year-old Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KOs).
Dirrell, Abraham and Ward are all picking Kessler to rebound in victory, while only 30-year-old Allan Green (29-1, 20 KOs), of Tulsa, Ok., is picking Froch.
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
No comments:
Post a Comment