I think Kessler could beat him and it's a feasible fight. If he beats the winner of Miranda Pavlik who else is left for him to fight at middleweight. I think we're all tired of seeing him against the likes of the Kaseem Ouma's.
In an TV-interview on Sunday, Kessler was asked who he would prefer if he could choose between, Hopkins, Taylor or Calzaghe.. Kessler answered: "Calzaghe is making a claim to be the best in my division, I do, off cause fight for money, but the honor of proving you are the best in division, is important to me".
Toughie! Id give Taylor the thinest of thin edge in this fight, i think! Kessler is the bigger man bieng a natural SM but Taylor cant stay at Middle for ever - he's Huge at the weight! Im thinking Taylors top flight experiances could help him alot in a close fight like this
Kessler vs. Taylor would be quite a fight. How many HBO (quality) fights, do you guys think Kessler needs, before something like this could happen?
I don't think it would have to be that many.
They were shooting Kessler like he was George Clooney on Saturday.
You couldn't even see "the other guy" during instructions.
It was all closeups of Mikkel.
HBO could whip up one fluff piece on Kessler and it would be done.
He has what they call; "the complexion to get the connection.."
My question is; can Kessler go full speed all 12?
I haven't seen enough of the guy to say he can fight outside the quote unquote European Style.
Can he loft and lumber all over the place with a super clutz like Taylor?
Kessler likes to have his slippers planted from what I've noticed in just only a few fights.
He's controlled and tempered - but so was/is Bernard Hopkins!
Bernard can also cut 360 degrees all over the place, and Taylor was turbo glancing all over the ring like "The Greatest American Hero" on Bernard..
Kessler has not exhibited enough dimensions to me to say he could beat Jermain Taylor with straight up boxing skills.
I have no idea how Kessler is when he's hurt.. Too many questions for that.
I agree with gunstar that Kessler would be the toughest challenge for Taylor. Kessler can box, he has good footwork and fast hands. He would give Taylor trouble with his accurate punches. Even though I like Miranda, he doesn't have the necessary boxing skills to beat Taylor in a decision like Kessler does.
Taylor fought Hopkins twice, then winky wright. Saying that he only looks for easy fights is not a fair comment at all... I don't want to sway off the topic so I'll leave that there.
I think Taylor will clean out the middle weights such as Miranda, Abraham and Pavlik before thinking about Kessler and Calzaghe. He'll probably clean out the junior middlweights as well before taking on the super middleweights :-)
Well that's not exactly what i'm saying - at least not all I'm saying.
When Taylor fought Hopkins and Winky, the rewards were there to make up for the risk. But against Kessler at SMW IMO the risk would be greater and the rewards clearly smaller. Also at an earlier stage in his career, Taylor had less to lose and more to gain. THAT'S why there's no chance of Taylor taking on Kessler - unless these factors dramaticly changes - and basicly the only way they'd change enough, is if Kessler has already been exposed, to the extend of Kessler looking an easy pay-day.
Taylor fought Hopkins twice, then winky wright. Saying that he only looks for easy fights is not a fair comment at all... I don't want to sway off the topic so I'll leave that there.
I think Taylor will clean out the middle weights such as Miranda, Abraham and Pavlik before thinking about Kessler and Calzaghe. He'll probably clean out the junior middlweights as well before taking on the super middleweights :-)
Miranda is doing the cleaning for him while he is outpointing up the 15lbs guys!
Kessler needs to look easy to beat for this to happen.
Taylor fought Hopkins twice, then winky wright. Saying that he only looks for easy fights is not a fair comment at all... I don't want to sway off the topic so I'll leave that there.
I think Taylor will clean out the middle weights such as Miranda, Abraham and Pavlik before thinking about Kessler and Calzaghe. He'll probably clean out the junior middlweights as well before taking on the super middleweights :-)
Kessler vs. Taylor would be quite a fight. How many HBO (quality) fights, do you guys think Kessler needs, before something like this could happen?
Kessler needs to look easy to beat for this to happen.
I think Kessler beats Taylor surprisingly easily. Taylor in my opinion is overated. I thought he lost both fights to Hopkins in my opinion. Kessler would take advantage of Taylor's habit of throwing his punches wide and not straight down the middle.
I think that the only person from 175 down that would have a chance of beating Kessler at the moment is Winky Wright, simply cause I think Kessler would have problems landing shots through his top notch defence. I'd favour Kessler over him still.
He does well at super middle weight because he is such a large super middle weight. I think his fights would be a lot closer if he moved up to light heavy weight and didn't have that large size disparity.
I'd love to see Taylor fight Kessler. I'd also really like to see Hopkins fight Kessler. I can really see Hopkins "grow old overnight" if he fights Kessler and getting stopped. Kessler is on you the on whole time and with power - you need to be on your toes 3 mins for all 12 rounds.
Kessler would probably KO Taylor unless there is an underlying weight issue that has been holding Taylor back. Lets be honest if Kessler hits Taylor an equal amount comparitively to Ouma and Wright the result will be much worse for JT. Plus the last time JT lost to someone his own size(Hopkins Taylor 1) he was hurt a couple of times in the fight and Hopkins was fighting conservatively. Kessler will overwhelm him with activity and stop him far easier than expected. Besides lets just see what happens between JT and Spinks. This thread could be a mute point after that and if he gets past them he has Miranda or Pavlik to deal with. personally I would like to see Miranda vs Kessler or even Kessler vs Lacy Winky vs Miranda or Kessler vs Winky before Taylor gets his shot. So many great matchups, some of em have to happen.