Max Molyneux wrote:viciousmaussa wrote:How do you know Lucas was shot? He might've been inactive, but as you say so was Kessler. I know Lucas wasn't exactly in his prime, but anyhow Kessler isn't a guy to go looking for KOs; he has the virtues of poise, patience and a consistent jab. Didn't look shot to me, more like shut out and busted up by the best kept secret in boxing (aside from Lorenzo Parra). Siaca was shut out out and beaten up, too, and he was good enough to beat Mundine and Byron Mitchell (officially he lost to BM, but under dodgy circumstances!).
Lucas has fought Roy Jones, Fabrice Tiozzo (good enough to beat down Mike McCallum), Glenn Catley, Danny Green, Marcus Beyer. And he said that after Jones, Kessler was the best he fought.
Because he could of put up a better fight than that against the way Kessler was fighting. Plus he's probably had some wear and tear from those loses too and like James said he had a long term Illness so that would have some affect.
Best Kept secret? He's only that way becasuse he hasn't got much market value outisde of Denmark and before Beyer than what was the point of overpricing himself?
Patience and a good jab? You need more than that against Calzaghe to be competitive.
Good points. Let's be realistic here, there are two sides to every argument. It's all well and good dissing Calzaghe for 'avoiding' Kessler, but consider also that Kessler's camp are only telling their side of the story.
allegedly stated that team Palle (I think that's his promoter) asked for ridiculous sums of money to fight Calzaghe. Now I know Lacy was very well paid, but Lacy was a big name big exposure fighter in the states, where there's a lot of boxing money. Whilst Kessler is popular in Denmark, there is nowhere near as much money in a fight between Calzaghe and Kessler, as there was for Calzaghe v Lacy, by my reckoning anyhow. How many PPV buys would they get in Denmark compared to the USA.
Kessler, despite the talk of confidence, surely knows that Calzaghe is by far the most dangerous opponent he could face. He is probably pretty confident about beating Beyer (maybe misplaced, perhaps Beyer is cute enough to to pull out a decision), but knows that Calzaghe is a different kettle of fish.
So why risk his massive following in Denmark, when he can unify against Kessler and rack up more defences? It's quite possible that Kessler's team will be happy to price him out of a fight with Calzaghe, and vice versa of course. It sucks that boxing is this way, but those are the realities of the business end of things.