I used to love Mads Larsen. He had the talent, the skills and most of his fights were pretty damn exciting. And I wouldnt hesitate to rate him among the top 10 Super Middleweights of the decade - and with the possible exception of Calzaghe (and now Kessler) I would give a prime Larsen a shot against everyone else in the division.

So it was annoying to see a protected Larsen never really get the fights, he deserved. He has only fought for a world title once - and was robbed by Ottke in Germany. He came back to decisively outpoint Danilo Haussler (in Germany, making it not a small feat) for the European title. Then he was scheduled to fight Siaca for the title, but had to pull out with injury (leaving the chance for compatriot and stablemate Kessler).

And it was even more annoying to see Larsen subsequently fall more and more into oblivion, as he - thanks to injuries and contract disputes with promoter Palle - never seemed to get another fight after the beating of Haussler in 2003.

Having signed with Sauerland event, he finally came back last month though. He did have quite much ring rust, as he went the full 8 rounds against Russian Vasily Andriyanov, but the fundamentals were still pretty much there (also Andriyanov did have 13 losses, but none of them were on ko, so he is pretty durable). Larsen does seem quite ambitious about his comeback, with his next fight (revealed yesterday) being against Hector Javier Velazco (35-6-1) on June 23rd. Velazco is rated #10 by WBO, have only lost to Sturm, Mariano Natalio Carrera, Abraham and Braehmer (his last outing) this decade. So it should be a pretty good test, if Larsen, now 34, could still be a force in the division.

Down the line (say, later this year or early next year) I would love to see him in the ring with Froch. That could be a great fight, and it would give the winner a pretty solid name to the record, as well as possibly setting them him up for a title fight. I'd definetely favor prime Larsen against Froch, but it remains to be seen if he can reach that level again. One can only hope...