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Denmark’s favorite son laces up the gloves tonight as Mikkel Kessler defends his WBA super middle crown against unheralded challenger Gusmyr Perdomo at The Messecenter in Herning, Denmark.
The highly accurate “Viking Warrior” regained the WBA bauble in 2008 following his only career loss to the “Welsh Wizard”, Joe Calzaghe in 2007, and made a successful defense against Danilo Haussler last October.
Continuing the line of lesser opposition since the Calzaghe loss, Kessler, 41-1- (31), faces Venezuelan southpaw Perdomo, 16-2 (10), tonight.
Known locally in his hometown of Termero as the “Azucar Torpedo”, Perdomo had his top career moment when regaining the WBA fedelatin title with a second round stoppage of veteran Hector Javier Velazco a year ago but the 33 year old also has come up short against Mario Veit and Dimitri Sartison, who Kessler KO’d last June.
The great thing about boxing is that anything can truly happen once the bell rings, but it’s unlikely that Kessler is going to fail here unless Perdomo produces a once in a lifetime performance.
The chief danger to Kessler is likely that he could be overlooking Perdomo in favor of the upcoming Super Six tournament in which the Dane is to face American contender Andre Ward.
Ward is also in action tonight, squaring off with little known Shelby Pudwill in a tune-up fight in America.
A lot is riding on this bout against Perdomo tonight and Kessler will have to stay focused in order to get the job done. Any slip-up could prove disastrous to his bid to unify the super middle titles.
