by Cliff Rold
Combined, the two warriors have 62 wins, 47 knockouts and not a single loss. Mikkel Kessler vs. Librado Andrade could be the most underrated fight of 2007.
What’s that? Haven’t heard of ‘em? Expect that to change this Saturday on HBO. Fight fans have gotten used to complaining about a trend of terrible match-ups on the network over the last few years. This Boxing After Dark main event is complaint proof. On one side of the ring is Mikkel Kessler (38-0, 29 KOs) of Denmark, the Ring Magazine #1 contender to World 168 lb. champion Joe Calzaghe. Staring across at him will be #5 Librado Andrade (24-0, 18 KOs) of Mexico, a fighter whose resume might be lacking but whose punch is not.
It’s a great fight on paper and one sure to have a fiery crowd in Kessler’s Copenhagen backyard. Hot on the heels of last Saturday’s amazing Marco Antonio Barrera-Juan Manuel Marquez and Jean Marc Mormeck-O’Neill Bell bouts, a great result in the ring could give this fight the longest reach of any this year for two reasons: future programming and the future of the pound for pound race.
With Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather coming up, that statement might seem like blasphemy. It’s not. This fight is about the future and the viewers needed to drive it. Fans owe it to the sport not only to watch but to encourage anyone they know with a passing interest in pugilism to check it out. If it succeeds in the ratings, it can only encourage a return to the matchmaking that once made HBO the spot for real big time boxing.
It’s been a while since that was regularly true. Bouts like Miguel Cotto-Oktay Urkal, every Floyd Mayweather bout from 2003-05 and the recent, putrid Wladimir Klitschko-Ray Austin were worse than a waste of HBO money. They were a waste of of a boxing fan's time. Given the dramatic recession in boxing fans in the last ten years, wasting the time of fans is a dangerous gamble. This fight, in contrast, is an investment.
While neither man has been seen on this sort of global stage, out of sight is not out of mind. Hardcore followers have buzzed about Kessler for the last few years and rightly so. Only 28 years of age, Kessler has defeated six current or former alphabet titlists on the road to capturing the WBA and WBC straps (both of which are on the line versus Andrade). Tall for a super middleweight at 6’1 and possessing one of the best jabs in the sport, Kessler has the movie star looks to become one of the few European stars to truly cross over into the American market.
Andrade’s bona fides don’t measure up to the challenge he is expected to provide. In many ways his record (filled with typical B-sides) and Latin surname scream ‘typical WBC mandatory contender.’ The thing is, like welterweight Paul Williams, the opponents on record are only one component. One need only watch Andrade, also 28, to see that he can flat out fight. He’s not as polished as Kessler but he can bang and so far has been able to take a shot. Andrade is an inside beast; Kessler is a marksman most comfortable on the perimeter. In other words, we’ve got two quality fighters in their physical prime with a perfect style clash who need, not just want, to win.
The impact on the long-term pound for pound picture won’t be measurable on Sunday morning but it’s huge for the man that emerges victorious. The talent pool from 160-175 lbs. right now is the deepest in fifteen years. The top two at middleweight (World champion Jermain Taylor and Winky Wright), Calzaghe at 168 and Bernard Hopkins at 175 are in every current pound for pound top ten; fifteen years ago, this same weight range had names like Roy Jones, Mike McCallum, James Toney, Gerald McClellan, Virgil Hill and Nigel Benn. Both groups, now and then, are remarkable not only for that top tier of talent but also for the incredible depth of talent below them. It forces the best to prove it continuously against the best.
The winner Saturday will be in that mix and they’ll have two belts as leverage to get the right fights. It will be a matter of when, not if, they face off with the names everyone already knows. The victor will be the man everyone wants to see against a Calzaghe still looking to validate his long career; the most likely roadblock to Taylor when he chooses to rise in weight; the leading candidate to rise 7 pounds for the scalp of the ageless Hopkins. Once one of those chances arrives, the top of the sport can literally be one punch away. Saturday’s victor could literally be the pound for pound king within eighteen months.
HBO deserves tentative credit for what is slowly occurring. A few weeks ago we saw legitimate contenders Edison Miranda (28-1, 24 KOs, #3 at 160) and Alan Green (23-0, 16 KOs, #8 at 168) square off and the victorious Miranda is now being maneuvered towards the dangerous Kelly Pavlik (30-0, 27 KOs, #9 at 160) in a top ten middleweight showdown. In between we have Kessler-Andrade and it’s only a matter of time until American WBC 175 lb. titlist Chad Dawson (24-0, 15 KOs, #5) starts hearing his name mentioned for bigger fights.
There are at least ten more names I could come up with. This is a bumper crop of talent; a rejection of the inane commentary that boxing is dying. Quite to the contrary, boxing has happened onto the next talent pool that it can be rebuilt around. Cast in that light, Kessler-Andrade couldn’t be more significant. It might not be a superfight today but it is the bridge to a whole lot of the superfights of tomorrow. If these two deliver the magic their talents suggest they can this Saturday night, Mikkel Kessler vs. Librado Andrade will be the most important fight of 2007.
Rold Rants and Rambles…
Open Scoring Sucks: First, props to Don King for getting this bout on U.S. TV. As good as Mormeck-Bell II was though, there’s little doubt from this observer that knowing he had a lead influenced new World cruiserweight champion Mormeck to get on his bike and run the last four rounds out against Bell. What was on the verge of being a legendary fight turned pedestrian when the scores were read after eighth round (Mormeck was announced with a four point lead). The WBC needs to stop this experiment before it produces a similar display in a fight that doesn’t have eight entertaining rounds to hide another abominable prevent defense act. One could argue that fighters have run out leads for years in boxing and that’s true. However, with open scoring, the fans know, rather than just think, that one guy has stopped trying to finish with style. It’s a big difference…
Taylor-Spinks: It is dramatically unfair that the possibility of Jermain Taylor facing off with Cory Spinks is meeting with hostility. Spinks is almost unanimously the top 154 lb. fighter in the world and a former World champion at 147. His three best wins (Ricardo Mayorga, Zab Judah, Roman Karmazin) were all upsets in similarly shooed off fights, all of which turned out to be entertaining. To say Spinks doesn’t have a shot is just wrong. Lou DiBella, the head of Team Taylor, deserves praise for salvaging the loss of “Contender” champion Sergio Mora as an opponent by filling the slot with a better fighter who has proven to be one of the top domestic draws in the U.S.
Say what you will of the Spinks style, but the man can sell tickets. If the worst case scenario occurs, and Taylor blows out the well known Spinks, then that’s a good thing. God forbid one of the top young stars in boxing actually does something that guarantees highlights on Sports Center. There are plenty of matches to complain about but the ones that can help the sport shouldn’t be among them…
Mini-Tragedy: Those familiar with my past work know that I hold the flyweight and super flyweight divisions in very high regard for the depth of talent they currently house. The one thing missing the last few years has been clash among the top fighters.
This past Monday, boxing gave another example of what happens when talent is wasted. The #1 contender to lineal World flyweight champion Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Lorenzo Parra (27-1, 17 KOs) had been one of the games best since upsetting former U.S. Olympian Eric Morel in 2003. Rumors of weight struggles and a knee injury kept him on the shelf for all of 2006 and when he showed up for a Monday title defense (he held the WBA belt at 112) against #7 Takefumi Sakata (30-4-1, 15 KOs, a previous two-time loser to Parra), he was six pounds overweight. It was no surprise when he fell flat and was blown out in three frames.
The best fighters at flyweight (including sensational Vic Darchinyan) have been tragically misused in one pointless mandatory after another the last three years without a single bout against each other. This is the second decade in a row that a great class of mini-mites has been largely wasted; the hardcore faithful still await the results of Mark Johnson-Yuri Arbachakov and Michael Carbajal-Ricardo Lopez that never came. These divisions are exhibit A for the ruin that split titles have on boxing history…
Final flurry: It ain’t just Saturday. Get thee to a television Friday night as well. Telefutura has an excellent jr. flyweight face off between #3 Nelson Dieppa (23-3-2, 13 KOs) and #6 strawweight Daniel Reyes (37-4-1, 30 KOs). Both are former alphabet titlists but don’t hold that against them; this could be a sleeper candidate to compete for fight of the year…Former two-time lineal World 115 lb. champion Masamori Tokuyama (32-3-1, 8 KOs) of Japan, unable to secure a fight with leading Japanese bantamweight Hozumi Hasegawa, has decided to call it a day. While his Hall of Fame potential is questionable, his standing as one of the best of this decade is not.
In seven bouts against three men who had or would hold the legit World title in his class, Tokuyama was 6-1 and did it with skill and guile that few possess. Good luck in the future champ…Why is HBO considering giving another valuable airdate to Arturo Gatti? I know, I know. Gatti has been a great warrior and a credit to the game, but he’s in the way of better fights and fighters at this point. Gatti already got his gold watch fights against Thomas Daamgaard and in a vicious KO loss to otherwise non-KO scoring Carlos Baldomir (then the Welterweight king). The story has already ended badly. Now, we’re just headed for the worst.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
