Team Kessler Rips British Boxing Promoter Frank Warren

ByBoxing Press

Mogens Palle, who is coming up on his 50th anniversary as Europe’s leading boxing promoter, has put British promoter Frank Warren “on blast” for what Palle said are complete lies concerning an offer made to Mikkel Kessler to fight Joe Calzaghe.

Kessler, by virtue of his stunning, three-round KO over Markus Beyer, now holds both the WBA and WBC super middelweight title belts. The veteran Calzaghe, now 42-0, continues to wear the IBF and WBO title belts. Palle and the 38-0 Kessler both made it clear again in the wake of Kessler’s dominant victory over the German that Kessler wants to fight Calzaghe like a hungy wolf wants some lamb chops.

“It must be difficult for Frank Warren to look at himself in the mirror the way he lies,” Palle said. “And he must have trouble putting on his pants each morning when he has the British press in his pockets. But I can tell you that it is one of the most blatant lies in boxing history when he says that he made an offer of 1.5 million British prounds for Mikkel Kessler to fight his man, Calzaghe.

“I went to England to meet Warren months ago and I made an offer. Warren listened and said he would make a counter offer. I waited and waited and heard nothing. There was no counter offer and no response of any kind from Warren. Instead, they ran to fight a journeyman Sakio Bika. Now he and Joe are barking out the name of Bernard Hopkins. They both know that Kessler will beat Calzaghe and that he will beat him whether they fight in the UK, in Denmark or in the United States.

“Why doesn’t HBO step up and demand the two unbeaten champions, both holding two belts, to fight for supremacy? Why would the boxing media and fans the world over want to see anything other than these two fighters meeting directly? This could be the super middleweight version of Ali vs. Frazier. Let there be no mistake about it, Kessler wants this fight.”

For his part, Kessler said he believes he is the world’s best at 168 pounds. “Joe disagrees with me, fine, but let’s settle it where it should be settled in the boxing ring,” Kessler said.
“I don’t know why Joe continues to call out Roy Jones, Hopkins and these other guys. He should want what the fans want which is that he and I get it on. Joe knows in his heart that he cannot beat me.”