Mikkel Kessler, through his promoter, Sauerland Event, made a request to the WBO Championship Committee to get appointed as the mandatory challenger, and to hold the #1 position in the rankings at super middleweight, as per his outstanding victory over #6 and former WBO Inter-Continental champion Mehdi Bouadla (22-4) on June 4, 2011. The WBO approved Kessler's request, making him the mandatory challenger to champion Robert Stieglitz.
Mikkel Kessler Now The Mandatory To Robert Stieglitz
Comments
LEATHERF8CESun Jun 12, 2011, 1:53 AM UTC
Bute will get a shot before Kessler does, unless Kessler agrees to fight Bute.
Co-sign... Ward vs Bute
Dave_RadoSun Jun 12, 2011, 1:39 AM UTC
The way I see it it is Bute who's in need of a credible opponent. Not Kessler. He can now fight for the WBO belt and get a shot at the WBC champion when the s6 is over thereby getting a chance to be unified again.
Bute will get a shot before Kessler does, unless Kessler agrees to fight Bute.
BattlingNelsonSat Jun 11, 2011, 8:48 AM UTC
1-lowball offer? Where did you get the numbers?
2- In Copenhagen? Would they fight in the middle of the night so Showtime can have it live in the US? If Kessler doesn't want to fight in Montreal, he can make an offer to fight in the US if they can sell tickets there, which I doubt. If you have somewhere that would be OK with Showtime and where they could get good gate money and that isn't in Quebec, I'd like to hear it. And I would agree with you that if Bute refuses to fight in such a place, he'd be afraid to travel. But unless I'm mistaken, Showtime isn't warm to the idea of having one of their fight held in Europe.
It was lowball according to Sauerland. Now Sauerland is making an offer, that's financially more rewarding for Bute and then we'll see how he responds.
The way I see it it is Bute who's in need of a credible opponent. Not Kessler. He can now fight for the WBO belt and get a shot at the WBC champion when the s6 is over thereby getting a chance to be unified again.
ShoulderRollSat Jun 11, 2011, 6:54 AM UTC
Kessler is Champion Emeritus for the WBC and can thus challenge the Super Six winner for that title whenever he likes.
Bute on the other hand fights subpar opposition and should be forced to fight a Kessler, Abraham, or Dirrell before earning a shot at the Super Six winner.
Dave_RadoFri Jun 10, 2011, 11:56 PM UTC
I honestly think it's just Sauerlands way of putting pressure on Interbox, who made an offer to get Kessler to fight Bute in Canada. An offer that apparently was unacceptably low. ;-)
Not surprising - it's a high risk, very low reward fight for Bute - why would he take it at this time when he is virtually guaranteed a mega-fight against the Super 6 winner if he keeps winning, regardless of his competition?
Kessler should have taken the offer, however low, if he thinks he can win - he has much more to prove than Bute does at this stage. Bute is the one who is sitting pretty waiting to fight the Super 6 winner in a huge fight. Kessler isn't in that position.
