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The Viking Warrior is back! WBC Super Middleweight World Champion
Emeritus Mikkel Kessler (44-2, 33 KOs) celebrated a spectacular comeback
on Saturday night when he destroyed brave Frenchman Mehdi Bouadla (22-4,
10 KOs) in six rounds. With a boisterous crowd of 12,500 fans supporting
their idol in Copenhagen?s PARKEN Stadium, Kessler stamped his authority
on the fight early. A huge right then sent Bouadla down in the third,
but he scrambled back to his feet and carried on. In the fourth, Kessler
knocked him down again, and Bouadla took further punishment in the
fifth. After two more knockdowns in the sixth, the referee waved the
bout off. “It?s great to be back,” Kessler said. “Fighting in this great
atmosphere with my Danish fans supporting me was fantastic. I have to
give credit to Bouadla. He was a tough opponent and refused to give up.
I was surprised how many punches he could take. I am pleased with my
performance.”
Trainer Jimmy Montoya also praised his fighter. “Mikkel did very well
tonight,” he said. “He did exactly what he was supposed to do. Bouadla
is a tough kid, we knew that, but Mikkel never allowed him to get into
the fight and took control straight away. That?s exactly how I want him
to fight. He has big things ahead. The best is yet to come.”
Promoter Kalle Sauerland called the comeback “sensational”. He stated:
“The Viking Warrior is back! It looked like he has never been away. He
continued where he left it against Froch and left Bouadla without a
chance. I take my hat off to Mehdi, who proved he can really take a
punch and that he is an extremely tough guy. But there was no way he
could keep up with Mikkel. We will now sit down and look at the best
options to get Mikkel the biggest fights out there. The future certainly
is bright for Mikkel.”
Bouadla, who had never been stopped before, congratulated Kessler on a
big victory. “He is a great fighter and very strong. My game plan did
not work. He was punching a lot and hit me a couple of times but I
carried on. Mikkel is a great champion and deserved to win, but I will
be back.”
On the undercard, Patrick Nielsen (10-0, 6 KOs) continued his rise to
the top with a spectacular third-round TKO victory over Joe Rea.
Nielsen, considered “The next Kessler” by many fans and experts, knocked
his opponent down with a huge left in the second. After two more
knock-downs in the third, Rea?s corner threw the towel. “It was
fantastic to fight at PARKEN Stadium,” Nielsen said. “This is a great
win for me.”
Also on the undercard, Kim Poulsen knocked out Tarik Sahibeddine in the
third round, Kasper Bruun clinched a unanimous points victory over Jay
Morris, Edmund Gerber outpointed Zack Page and Dustin Dirks stopped Juan
Nelongo in the fourth.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
