Body Blows: Kessler vs. Andrade

Results

Boxing has hit a lull after the Marco Antonio Barrera/Juan Manuel Marquez pay-per-view last week. Case in point, the biggest fight of this weekend was Mikkel Kessler defending his super middleweight titles against Librado Andrade, two names not well-known outside of hardcore boxing fans. Often times, as long as the fights are exciting, the resumes of the participants are not important. But can a fight dominated by one man still be exciting?

Mikkel Kessler vs. Librado Andrade

This was all Kessler from the start. It’s not a good sign when the fifth round is underway and the announcers are discussing if the fight should be stopped because the opponent has no chance of winning. Andrade showed a lot of heart and kept the fight competitive but was just out-classed against Kessler. Kessler was beating Andrade to the punch and moving around the ring much easier than Andrade.

Things weren’t as bleak early on, as Andrade caused some blood to trickle from Kessler’s nose. As the rounds went on, however, Andrade had no answers for Kessler’s athleticism and made no real adjustments between stanzas. He fought like he was behind (because he was) and it made for an exciting, albeit one-sided fight. All three judges had a scorecard of 120-108 in favor of Mikkel Kessler. Andrade landed less than 100 punches in the fight while Kessler connected over 350 times, according to the CompuBox numbers. The fight was Andrade’s first loss as a professional while Kessler remains undefeated and retained his WBA and WBC Super Middleweight titles.

In lieu of a full fight recap (all rounds were really the same), I’d like to point out that I was sad to see Laurence Cole referee this fight. He was suspended last year for telling Juan Manuel Marquez he was ahead on the scorecards as Marquez was recovering from an illegal shot. Cole is one of the worst referees in boxing and he’d be doing everyone a favor if he quit being a referee for good.

Kessler has no other options than Joe Calzaghe for his next fight, but that would necessitate Calzaghe’s acceptance of the fight. Calzaghe fights Peter Manfredo in two weeks and shouldn’t have much trouble in dispatching of him, but Calzaghe is looking for bigger payday fights than Kessler can give him.

Other Results From The Week

– Takefumi Sakata won the WBA Flyweight Title when Lorenzo Parra was unable to make weight. Sakata sealed the deal later with a third round TKO.

– Holly Holm is one of the top female fighters in the world and proved it by retaining her Welterweight titles with a unanimous decision over Ann Saccurato.

– Ukrainian welterweight prospect Dmitriy Salita earned a unanimous decision over Grover Wiley.

– Carl “The Cobra” Froch remained undefeated as a super middleweight with a third round TKO of Sergey Tatevosyan.

– Delvin Rodriguez was upset in the main event of ESPN Friday Night Fights when he was knocked out by Jesse Feliciano.

Spit Bucket

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