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It was a big night of action at the Weser Ems Halle in Oldenburg, Germany last evening as Mikkel Kessler re-stamped his authority over the super middleweight division with a devastating KO of opponent Danilo Haussler.
33 year old Haussler held the European Super Middle crown from 2001-2003 but failed on two attempts to recapture the belt in 2004 and 2007 and this challenge of arguably the best 168 pound fighter in the world came as a bit of a surprise to many.
The seasoned Frankfurt, Germany man had not been beaten in almost four years and knew this would be his first and likely only chance to win a world title, giving him the advantage of a fighter with absolutely nothing to lose.
Once the bell rang to begin the contest, Haussler initially could jab his way inside but soon the champion’s own jab made that all but impossible for the shorter German.
Kessler’s jab kept Haussler in range and the Dane landed his first right hand. Haussler couldn’t get close enough to land his own right but did manage a left hook that caught Kessler after the champion speared the challenger with a straight right to the midsection.
Haussler showed good defense to catch most of the jabs on the gloves but a sneaky Kessler left upper-hook got through. Kessler’s activity was keeping Haussler on the defensive until the champion banged home a short one-two combination at close quarters. Haussler was shaken but redoubled his efforts and got in a left hook to the head of Kessler in return.
Haussler began to duck the big right hands that were coming from Kessler and got in a short right of his own a moment before the first round came to a close.
Beginning the second a bit closer to Kessler, Haussler got in a hard jab but the effort to improve upon that earned him a quick left hook to the head from Kessler. But Haussler was backing up the champion for the first time in the bout and landed a left jab, right hand to the body combination.
As Haussler was walking through the jab defense, Kessler dug a hard left to the ribs of the challenger, which stopped Haussler’s momentum and made him a sitting target for a jabfest, which all seemed to find the target.
But gritty Haussler advanced behind two hard jabs that found their way through until Kessler rammed home another hurtful left to the body. Again, Haussler was a stationary target but regained his drive but missed a right hand. Kessler responded with a right that got through but Haussler blocked the followup left-right on the gloves.
The two traded scoring jabs in the center of the ring and Haussler zips in a right and Kessler again begins to back up. Emboldened, Haussler steps in and lands a flush right hand behind the jab, his best punch of the fight by far to this point of the action.
Kessler looks a bit more cautious as he circles to his left and bangs Haussler with a meaty right hand and then another moments later but Haussler ducks the third right. After a trade of jabs, Kessler gets a wide left hook around Haussler’s tight guard.
Still Haussler forges ahead but is paying the price for it as Kessler gets busier with the jab, a right hand and another crunching left to the body. Haussler tries a right to the body at the back end of a jab but misses and gets popped moments later with a sharp right from the champion.
Kessler gets on his toes for a bit and maintains a better distance, popping his rival with a jab until they clinch and Haussler gets to work with a nice right uppercut, left hook to Kessler’s head that gets the German crowd going before Kessler ends the round with a good right hand.
Emboldened by his brief success at close quarters, Haussler tries to get closer to Kessler but the constant jabbing of the champion forces the German to maintain his gloves in a tight defensive position. Haussler continues the pressure, firing jabs but their effectiveness is nullified by his immediate ducking in case a right hand comes his way.
Haussler counters a lazy Kessler jab with a right hand that chases the champion out of position but when combat resumes, Kessler can’t miss with five laser-like jabs that leads to a right that bangs off the side of Haussler’s head.
Haussler tries to return to the pressure but Kessler can smell blood now and unleashes a ripping five punch combination that culminates with a left upper hook to the point of Haussler’s chin and the challenger falls fully on his back to the floor as if yanked by the collar.
Haussler does manage to beat the count but is in no condition to continue and the bout is stopped at 1:08 of he third frame.
Mikkel Kessler retains his WBA crown for the first time during his second reign and improves to 41-1 (31) while Danilo Haussler drops to 29-4-1 (7).
On the undercard, European Cruiserweight Champion Marco Huck, 23-1 (18), stopped Italy’s Fabio Tuiach, 22-2 (14), at 2:22 of the second round and light middleweight Alexander Abraham, 23-0-1 (16), won the vacant EBU-EE crown with a sixth round stoppage of Roman Dzuman, 23-6-1 (10).
Cruiserweight Yoan Pablo Hernandez, 17-1 (10), posted a majority decision over Michael Simms, 20-10-1 (13), in an eight rounder.
