Kessler's Demands

[eagle]

Miranda is the one that stated he wanted a high profile fight on American soil. If a junior alphabet title is what he seeks, against an opponent he has already beaten, to me it still adds up to avoiding the unknown in Miranda.
It is all rinse and repeat crap to me.

So what your saying is that to you it means more if Kess fought Miranda who just got his feet wet in the SMW with 2 decent wins over Porras and Banks.
Over Kess fighting Mundine who holds a piece of the crown with the WBA belt. Who's working on his 4th defense and at least is a stable SMW fighter who holds a lot more ground the Miranda.

You can't blame Kess for wanting to regain a title. You just can't I could see if Kess opted out to fight Jaidon or Jesse Brinkley. Then I see what you mean but calling this a rinse and repeat is over the top the guy just lost a fight and is going after a title holder what's wrong with that?

This whole mess has left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean Kessler came to the States looking for a high profile fight. He was offered one against an exciting, brawling, take no prisoners guy. it is not even a real alphabet title but a junior one. To me it just seems like a safer route more than a smart choice.

How is it the safer route when Mundine is arguably the better fighter than Pantera?

[CutMeMick]

So what your saying is that to you it means more if Kess fought Miranda who just got his feet wet in the SMW with 2 decent wins over Porras and Banks.
Over Kess fighting Mundine who holds a piece of the crown with the WBA belt. Who's working on his 4th defense and at least is a stable SMW fighter who holds a lot more ground the Miranda.

You can't blame Kess for wanting to regain a title. You just can't I could see if Kess opted out to fight Jaidon or Jesse Brinkley. Then I see what you mean but calling this a rinse and repeat is over the top the guy just lost a fight and is going after a title holder what's wrong with that?

This whole mess has left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean Kessler came to the States looking for a high profile fight. He was offered one against an exciting, brawling, take no prisoners guy. it is not even a real alphabet title but a junior one. To me it just seems like a safer route more than a smart choice.

How is it the safer route when Mundine is arguably the better fighter than Pantera?

I'm trying to figure that out myself.

[eagle]

This whole mess has left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean Kessler came to the States looking for a high profile fight. He was offered one against an exciting, brawling, take no prisoners guy. it is not even a real alphabet title but a junior one. To me it just seems like a safer route more than a smart choice.

How is it the safer route when Mundine is arguably the better fighter than Pantera?

I'm trying to figure that out myself.

Fighting the number3 guy @ 168 in his hometown is not a safer option than fighting the 10th ranked guy in the USA.

And before we get into an argument on 168 rankings this is how i see them....
Joe C
Kessler
Mundine
Bute
Inkin
Froch
Andrade
Lacy
Bika
Miranda

[Deanrw]

So what your saying is that to you it means more if Kess fought Miranda who just got his feet wet in the SMW with 2 decent wins over Porras and Banks.
Over Kess fighting Mundine who holds a piece of the crown with the WBA belt. Who's working on his 4th defense and at least is a stable SMW fighter who holds a lot more ground the Miranda.

You can't blame Kess for wanting to regain a title. You just can't I could see if Kess opted out to fight Jaidon or Jesse Brinkley. Then I see what you mean but calling this a rinse and repeat is over the top the guy just lost a fight and is going after a title holder what's wrong with that?

This whole mess has left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean Kessler came to the States looking for a high profile fight. He was offered one against an exciting, brawling, take no prisoners guy. it is not even a real alphabet title but a junior one. To me it just seems like a safer route more than a smart choice.

How is it the safer route when Mundine is arguably the better fighter than Pantera?

So many claim that Mundine is some benchmark while they say that Miranda has beat nobody. Someone find me a guy who Mundine has beat that is an A class fighter. You won't find any. People say Miranda is overrated, OK I accept that, but so is Mundine. The only thing Mundine has going for him is a paper title. At least Miranda has lots of fans stateside, which is what Kessler was looking for, a breakthrough fight in the US.

[eagle]

This whole mess has left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean Kessler came to the States looking for a high profile fight. He was offered one against an exciting, brawling, take no prisoners guy. it is not even a real alphabet title but a junior one. To me it just seems like a safer route more than a smart choice.

How is it the safer route when Mundine is arguably the better fighter than Pantera?

So many claim that Mundine is some benchmark while they say that Miranda has beat nobody. Someone find me a guy who Mundine has beat that is an A class fighter. You won't find any. People say Miranda is overrated, OK I accept that, but so is Mundine. The only thing Mundine has going for him is a paper title. At least Miranda has lots of fans stateside.

Mundine makes oz. Kessler would make probably 1 to 1.5 million US fighting Mundine here. Green got 2 million. He was gettin 400,000 euros for Miranda. So tell me how Miranda's popularity benefits him?

[Deanrw]

How is it the safer route when Mundine is arguably the better fighter than Pantera?

So many claim that Mundine is some benchmark while they say that Miranda has beat nobody. Someone find me a guy who Mundine has beat that is an A class fighter. You won't find any. People say Miranda is overrated, OK I accept that, but so is Mundine. The only thing Mundine has going for him is a paper title. At least Miranda has lots of fans stateside.

Mundine makes oz. Kessler would make probably 1 to 1.5 million US fighting Mundine here. Green got 2 million. He was gettin 400,000 euros for Miranda. So tell me how Miranda's popularity benefits him?

It would expose Kessler to an American audiance and make future fights with the Pavlik's, Taylor's, RJJ's more attractive and more probable.

[eagle]

So many claim that Mundine is some benchmark while they say that Miranda has beat nobody. Someone find me a guy who Mundine has beat that is an A class fighter. You won't find any. People say Miranda is overrated, OK I accept that, but so is Mundine. The only thing Mundine has going for him is a paper title. At least Miranda has lots of fans stateside.

Mundine makes oz. Kessler would make probably 1 to 1.5 million US fighting Mundine here. Green got 2 million. He was gettin 400,000 euros for Miranda. So tell me how Miranda's popularity benefits him?

It would expose Kessler to an American audiance and make future fights with the Pavlik's, Taylor's, RJJ's more attractive and more probable.

And a belt wouldnt help in getting big fights?

[Deanrw]

Mundine makes oz. Kessler would make probably 1 to 1.5 million US fighting Mundine here. Green got 2 million. He was gettin 400,000 euros for Miranda. So tell me how Miranda's popularity benefits him?

It would expose Kessler to an American audiance and make future fights with the Pavlik's, Taylor's, RJJ's more attractive and more probable.

And a belt wouldnt help in getting big fights?

I guess that depends. Do you consider Mundine's Belt under Joes belt a legitimate one? I don't. I see this as Kessler has faced Mundine before. There are no surprises, no wondering involved. Miranda is a wild card and a risky one at that. As talented as Kessler is, he has never fought anyone with Miranda's style before. Miranda is a risky guy to get into the ring with period!

Kessler is taking the route opposite of what he has expressed he wanted. I refuse to make an excuse for his backing out of the fight. I think he would beat Miranda, but not 100% convinced he would. I think his Handlers think the same thing and backed out for that very same reason.

[Mikkel_K]

This has turned into a thread debating whether Kessler-Miranda or Kessler-Mundine would be the better fight. First I have to say that personally and given the current situation I'd much prefer to see Kessler against Miranda than in a rematch against Mundine. Hovewer the Mundine fight should be acceptable - and surely is acceptable for me.

[There is obvioulsy the chance that Kessler will fight neither - and that is the really bad option, where Kessler and Palle will come out of this mess looking like idiots. This cannot be discounted, but let's save this for other threads (in the future).]

BUT there is one thing about fighting Mundine I have not seen mentioned anywhere. Neither in International nor Danish press (Kessler has btw got a lot of bad stick in the Danish press in the last few days - people here (there) don't understand his withdrawal either), nor in various Danish or International forums.

Therefore I'm not actually sure my thinking makes sense, but I'll post it here anyway. People are free to comment it, and/or tell me I'm stupid...

It goes like this:

Calzaghe beats Hopkins. Calzaghe has The Ring belt in SMW and LHW. Destined to be a true 2 weight champion - and looking forward to not having to make the lighter weight - Calzaghe keeps the LHW belt and abandons the SMW belt. (Mind, if Palle and Kessler are even speculating this, they are hardcore gambling on other people to make the 'right' decisions)

According to The Ring's rules, the belt will then be awarded to the winner in a between no. 1 and no. 2 in the division.

Current no. 1 is Mikkel Kessler. Current no. 2 is... ANTHONY MUNDINE.

In other words: Beating Anthony Mundine might not only give Kessler a WBA title (likely to be awarded full title after Calzaghe vacates - the same way the title Kessler took off Siaca was recognized as 'full' after Ottke retired with the Super WBA title), but The Ring Super Middleweight crown as well. In that case Kessler will be pretty hard to avoid, even if Palle is a negotiator from hell.

[Deanrw]

How is it the safer route when Mundine is arguably the better fighter than Pantera?

So many claim that Mundine is some benchmark while they say that Miranda has beat nobody. Someone find me a guy who Mundine has beat that is an A class fighter. You won't find any. People say Miranda is overrated, OK I accept that, but so is Mundine. The only thing Mundine has going for him is a paper title. At least Miranda has lots of fans stateside.

Mundine makes oz. Kessler would make probably 1 to 1.5 million US fighting Mundine here. Green got 2 million. He was gettin 400,000 euros for Miranda. So tell me how Miranda's popularity benefits him?

That 400,000 was just for the fight and did not include royalties he would get in Europe.