Kessler Challenges Pavlik

[Deanrw]

Mikkel Kessler: "If Joe Calzaghe Won't, I'll Fight Pavlik" - Boxing News

[Kel]

Bring it on. Would be a cracker!

[LEGION]

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about right there!!! That is the fight I want to see and hoping it would get made. Was hoping maybe Pavlik/Andrade first to see where Pavlik might stand in the SMW, but f#ck it; make the Kessler fight happen.

[Youngblood]

I'm down with this.

[hackey]

This would be ideal imo, just as i said earlier, this is perfect for Calzaghe because if Kessler won, it would eliminate alot of the "what ifs" with Pavlik. It would be a brilliant fight also.

[ICB]

There both actually similar there both round about the same height, they both throw straight punches right down the pipe. Both mens best punches are the jab, right hand combination. It will be a very close call but i'll give the edge to Pavlik based on the the power advantage, and the work rate advantage. But it could go either way but i'll go with Pavlik by a close 12 round UD.

[THE THIRD MAN]

Pavlik is in the box seat with his career, he has Abraham, Kessler, Mundine, Miranda and maybe Joe will find his balls and fight him too! 2008/9 is looking great at 160/168 lbs.

[C.J.Rock]

Mikkel Kessler: "If Joe Calzaghe Won't, I'll Fight Pavlik" - Boxing News

The jury is still out on Kessler. He's taken too long in my opinion to get back in the ring following his loss to Calzaghe. This leads me to doubt his confidence in himself.
Hopefully the fight with the unknown warrior can shed some light on that

[C-Lo]

ALRIGHT! Let's sign this fight! then when we start getting really excited about it, Kessler pulls out from some odd reason...







...Would not be surprised...

[Cortez The Killer]

There both actually similar there both round about the same height, they both throw straight punches right down the pipe. Both mens best punches are the jab, right hand combination. It will be a very close call but i'll give the edge to Pavlik based on the the power advantage, and the work rate advantage. But it could go either way but i'll go with Pavlik by a close 12 round UD.

I agree it's a toss up.

I admire Kessler stepping up and calling out Pavlik, not many are lining up to fight him atm.

I agree that Pavlik has got a few more outs....the power, work rate, and will be pressuring Kessler all night. Kess likes to set the distance and Pavlik will be invading it all night long.

I'd love to see this fight materialize. I'm a fan of Kessler and don't like Pavlik. The two would make a great match up.

[CFH]

There both actually similar there both round about the same height, they both throw straight punches right down the pipe. Both mens best punches are the jab, right hand combination. It will be a very close call but i'll give the edge to Pavlik based on the the power advantage, and the work rate advantage. But it could go either way but i'll go with Pavlik by a close 12 round UD.

I agree it's a toss up.

I admire Kessler stepping up and calling out Pavlik, not many are lining up to fight him atm.

I agree that Pavlik has got a few more outs....the power, work rate, and will be pressuring Kessler all night. Kess likes to set the distance and Pavlik will be invading it all night long.

I'd love to see this fight materialize. I'm a fan of Kessler and don't like Pavlik. The two would make a great match up.

I'm the same, I'm a big Kessler fan and I'm not that big a fan of Pavlik because of all the hype (I know it's a stupid reason, especially considering the hype Kessler received in the past). This would be a real toss up for me, I'd love to see it. Both men seem to like to fight at a bit of a distance, Pavlik has a higher work-rate, perhaps more power, but Kessler has better defense and is faster from what I've seen. Both men have great chins, but Kessler showed vulnerablility in his body during the Calzaghe fight, however I don't know if I've seen Kessler hurt like Pavlik was in the first Taylor fight. One thing I think that Kessler would try to do would be to walk Pavlik into right hands and counters, but I don't know if Pavlik would let him be successful.

[Deanrw]

I cannot see Pavlik caring to face Kessler at this point in time. Kessler is just regrouping himself and does not offer anything Pavlik would want.

Calzaghe on the other hand was a huge target in the boxing world. A big enough target where Pavlik was willing to move up in weight for.

Once Kessler gets his feet wet again with a couple good wins, then he becomes a viable top opponent again. One who is worth the jump in weight. Pavlik just won titles in his own weight class. He should not have to chase people around, unless of course they are a bigger fish than he is like Joe.

You can expect a Pavlik vs Kessler fight maybe in 2009 sometime, unless Pavlik decides to move up in weight early.

[OumaFan]

Sounds good to me. There is really not a whole lot at middle for Pavlik outside of Abraham and maybe Winky. And he's a huge middle so he's going to move up at some point anyway.

[Trainer Monkey]

Nice stepping up to the plate.
Only problem is I like both of them,I dont know who to root for

[amat]

I agree ICB it could come down to who could move the other guy backwards and I would probably give the advantage to Pavlik. Call me crazy but I think Pavlik might have the better footwork too which always plays a key role in these type of match ups. That's been my main criticism of Kessler form the longest time and I'm not letting up on it now. Although it is a lot easier to root for Kessler without his groupies around.

This is just a great fight though, if it was made it would probably be second to Cotto-Margarito in most anticipated fights. Like I said though I'm perfectly fine with Pavlik fighting bums at middleweight for as long as he can because he is such an entertaining fighter I would love to see a guy like him dominate the middleweight division the way Hagler and Hopkins did. He just seems like a middleweight champion to me.

But I wouldn't mind if it meant this fight getting made. Did Kessler fight this weekend? Sartison or whatever? I thought I saw something on that. I would like to see his rebound fight and Pavlik against a true 168 before it was made but either way it's fine.

I say bring on Rubio though, I was actually mildly impressed with Rubio on Telefutura. Not impressed enough to see him last with Pavlik but he has improved a lot from the fighter who I saw a couple years ago. Lots of punches, good jab and towards the end he couldn't miss. He's only like 27 too so it makes sense that he did improve. I would guessed him to be in his late 50's based on the number of wins he had.

After him Grady Brewer.