by James Slater – A short time ago at a press conference in his native Denmark, WBC super-middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler announced he will be withdrawing from the ongoing “Super-Six” tournament. An eye injury has forced Kessler to pull out, four months after he beat Carl Froch to claim the WBC crown and re-emerge as one of the favourites to win the tournament.
Kessler, as he explained, has been advised by his doctors to rest for a minimum of nine months so as to let his eye completely heal. Kessler said he has been suffering from double vision and the only way to get himself back into top fighting shape is to stay out of action for almost a year. Kessler, naturally, is very upset at having to withdraw, but he said he has done so so as to allow the rest of the fighters to continue in the tourney without delay..
Kessler said he will be back next year, and that he will be waiting for the “Super Six” winner.
A number of questions now spring to mind. Firstly, who will replace Kessler in the Showtime tournament? Secondly, will Kessler actually fight again? And thirdly, will fans lose a whole lot of interest in the “Super Six” due to a second fighter withdrawing (Jermain Taylor pulled out last year, of course).
As to who will replace Kessler: Sakio Bika would have been an obvious and sensible choice, as he was in the frame to replace Taylor back when “Bad Intentions” withdrew. However, Bika was disqualified in his last fight back in July and as a result, the organisers of “Super Six” may not want to draw any negative publicity by asking him in. Could someone like Librado Andrade, Robert Stieglitz or even Edison Miranda be getting a call soon?
As for Kessler, who said he was looking forward to winning the World Boxing Classic, will he actually fight again? Sure, his doctors have told him his eye will heal if given time, but what if this prognosis proves to be a wrongly given one? It’s possible. We don’t know yet if Kessler has sustained any retinal damage or anything else as serious, but if he has, he may well have fought his last fight.
As for fans losing interest in the tournament; this too is possible. With the Andre Ward-Andre Dirrell fight still in doubt (in terms if when and where it will actually take place), and now the Kessler-Allan Green fight off, fans may grow frustrated and turned off. It’s no-one’s fault of course, but less frequent fights equals less frequent action, and fans may tune into other bouts as a result.
Admittedly, this is looking at things in the least positive way, and maybe the “Super-Six” will roll on just fine without Kessler. It sure will be interesting to see who replaces him, though. As will it be interesting to see if “The Viking Warrior” can make good on his promise to meet the eventual winner in 2011.