Kessler Beats Hopkins, No Doubt About It

[purtyboy]

According to this guy's article anyway:

Kessler Beats Hopkins, No Doubt About It



By Chris Williams: I think we saw the fighter that can ultimately put Bernard Hopkins out of his misery last Saturday night when super middleweight Mikkel Kessler (41-1, 31 KOs) destroyed Danilo Haussler in a 3rd round TKO in Oldenburg, Germany. This wouldn’t a case of Hopkins picking on a middleweight fighter like Kelly Pavlik, who at the end of the day, was just too small for the light heavyweight Hopkins. Kessler has the size at 168, the boxing skills, the movement and the speed to easily handle Hopkins and retire him from the sport.

As good as Kessler looked, I doubt that Hopkins will want to take the hook and seek out a fight with him. Hopkins wants a fight with Joe Calzaghe or Roy Jones Jr., either of which would bring in much more money without all the risk that Kessler would bring to the table. I realize that Kessler has been beaten by Calzaghe, but the fight was very close and in a rematch, I’m fairly certain he would beat him. That’s why Calzaghe probably doesn’t want to face him again. As far as Kessler-Hopkins, I don’t see any reason why this fight can’t place.

Kessler would probably agree to fight Hopkins at 175 any day of the weak, because it would mean that he would only have to put on a couple of pounds to make the fight. Realistically, Kessler wouldn’t have to gain a pound and he would still be big enough, quick enough and skilled enough to beat him. Ultimately, Hopkins may have no other option but to face Kessler, because Calzaghe has no interest whatsoever in going over old ground and beating Hopkins one more time, and Roy Jones Jr. won’t be in the position to fight Hopkins after he loses badly to Calzaghe on November 8th.
That leaves only Chad Dawson and Kessler as potential opponents for Hopkins. I don’t see Hopkins having any interest in facing Pavlik again, because he would probably do much worse the next time out, and maybe lose to him. Other top fighters in the super middleweight and light heavyweight division, like Carl Froch, Jean Pascal, Denis Inkin, Lucian Bute, Hugo Garay, Zsolt Erdei and Adrian Diaconu, don’t have a big enough name for Hopkins to waste time fighting.

Hopkins is too small to move up to cruiserweight, so that’s out as well. In the end, Hopkins may have no choice but to fight Kessler if he wants to stay busy. I think Hopkins may have ruined his chances with a second fight with Calzaghe by burning his bridges by going to the last degree with his gamesmanship while trying to promote the fight. Calzaghe probably doesn’t have much interest in a repeat of that whole ordeal, even it does mean a huge payday at the end of the day.

Hopkins did look good in his last fight, I give him that, but that’s only because Pavlik did a poor job putting pressure on him and cutting off the ring. Kessler’s jab would be a major factor in the fight, as he would keep it in Hopkins’ face the whole time. Hopkins previously had problems in his fight with Jermain Taylor mainly because of Jermain’s jabs and speedy combinations. Kessler would bring the same thing to the table against Hopkins, but adding much more versatility when it comes to offensive firepower.

I think this would be a fight that the sneaky Hopkins couldn’t think his way through, trying to devise alternative strategies to beat Kessler. Believe me, Kessler would have a plan B, C, D, E and F, and would quickly work through each one until he found one that worked against the older Hopkins.

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So what do you think? How would this fight go?

Kessler would end worse then Pavlik.

[Poom]

I think Kessler would have a very good chance, infact I would pick Kessler to UD him, but the title of the article is stupid

Kessler Beats Hopkins, No Doubt About It

sure he may have a good chance, but id say there were many doubts about it,

He is bigger and a tonne more skillful than Pavlik, i think he can win.

[BIG H]

You can't compare Kessler and Pavlick in anyway. I'd pick Kessler over Hopkins to be honest!

[Pugilistic]

I feel Hopkins would beat Kessler.

The fight would be more competitive than the Pavlik fight but Kessler's style is too simple to cause bernard too many problems.

If Calzaghe could hurt Kessler i think Hopkins could hurt him much worse also.

[Tysonbruno]

This would be a good fight could be great in fact.

[Bomp]

IMO Hopkins wins this, it wasn't a good sign that against Joe Kessler got discouraged when things weren't going his way, plus he had to set his feet to land the knockout combination and Hop won't let him do that.

Saying that, he should do better than Pavlik. After watching it again I do believe that Pavlik was off his game (though I still reckon Hop could beat him with no excuses), Hopkins didn't jump on him, and i don't think it was the game plan at all to end up throwing so many punches, I think half way through the second round hop couldn't believe his luck that Pavlik was so docile and that he didn't have to revert to the hug and butt routine.

[Wayne]

This is a classic case of writing with one's heart rather than one's head. See how he contradicts himself here:

As good as Kessler looked, I doubt that Hopkins will want to take the hook and seek out a fight with him. Hopkins wants a fight with Joe Calzaghe or Roy Jones Jr., either of which would bring in much more money without all the risk that Kessler would bring to the table. I realize that Kessler has been beaten by Calzaghe, but the fight was very close and in a rematch, I’m fairly certain he would beat him. That’s why Calzaghe probably doesn’t want to face him again. As far as Kessler-Hopkins, I don’t see any reason why this fight can’t place.

Hopkins doesn't need a 'stay busy' fight. He's looking to retire next year and considering Jones-Calzaghe is only a few weeks after his fight with Pavlik there's every reason for him to be stomping to make a match with the winner of that bout next. This guy is writing as if Hopkins won't fight Kessler because Mikkel will beat him up. No, Hopkins won't fight Kessler because Americans don't know who he is. Hopkins also wants to avenge two losses in one bout. If Calzaghe wins and Hopkins beats him in the rematch, Hopkins can feel a moral victory over Jones and same thing if Jones wins. And then the obvious, a trilogy match in which he would go for 2 wins out of 3. If that match can't happen he may go for a match against Chad Dawson. IMO, this is a much more dangerous match than anything Kessler would bring. But 'Nard's ego won't tell him he can't do it. As much as this writer thinks Kelly Pavlik was too small for B-Hop, the fact of it is is Pavlik is built better for higher divisions than middleweight, his metabolism just allows him to sweat down to 160. Hopkins wants legacy-cementing fights and Kessler just doesn't bring that to the table.

Now if the fight did take place? Again, Kessler's punching power would come to nil against a guy who is flat out a defensive genius. Kessler would have to step on the gas for a full 12 rounds to make Hopkins come unwound, something only Joe Calzaghe was able to do. How this guy sees Hopkins being taken out when no one has ever been able to do that is anybody's guess. Not that I don't think Kessler could win it. I think it's possible, but I have my doubts.