By Rick Reeno

Later tonight in Cardiff, Wales, WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe (43-0, 32 KOs) attempts to maintain his status as boxing's current longest-reigning world champion. Nearly 60,000 fans, mostly coming for Calzaghe, will pack Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. On the other end of the ring is the power-punching, pressure machine, known as the "Viking Warrior" - WBC/WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (39-0, 29 KOs) of Copenhagen, Denmark.

The fight is a dream battle for pundits and fans alike. In the last few weeks, several veteran writers have changed their fight predictions, and then changed them again. The fight is that close to some. And to others the fight is not as close as most of us think. 

Going back in time to 2004, Kessler picked up his first major title by stopping WBA champ Manny Siaca after seven rounds of damage. In June 2005, he traveled to Australia to easily decision Anthony Mundine. Immediately following the win over Mundine, the demand for a Calzaghe-Kessler showdown began to build.

By the final quarter of 2006, a breakout year for both fighters, the stage was already set. In a span of twelve months, both of them cleaned up the entire division and were holding every major title at the weight. Calzaghe, a heavy underdog, demolished undefeated Jeff Lacy to unify the IBF and WBO titles. Kessler stopped Eric Lucas in January and came back in October to unify the WBA and WBC titles by knocking out Markus Beyer in only three rounds. 

Calzaghe was later stripped of the IBF title when he elected to fight Peter Manfredo Jr. instead of mandatory Robert Stieglitz (who fought for the vacant IBF title and was knocked out in three rounds by Alejandro Berrio, the same Berrio who was knocked out by journeyman Henry Porras and most recently Lucian Bute.)

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