32 Facts About Mikkel Kessler

Mikkel Kessler was born on 1 March 1979 and is a Danish former professional boxer who competed from 1998 to 2013.

Mikkel Kessler held multiple super-middleweight world championships, including the WBA title three times between 2004 and 2013, and the WBC title twice between 2006 and 2010.

Mikkel Kessler began his vocation early, training in boxing gyms at age 13.

Mikkel Kessler finished his amateur career with a record of 44 wins and three losses.

Mikkel Kessler won the 1995 European Cadet Championship, 1996 and 1997 Danish Junior Championships, the 1996 Nordic Amateur Championship, and in his last amateur bout won the 1998 Zealand International Tournament after stopping all 3 of his opponents.

Mikkel Kessler originally campaigned as a light middleweight and then middleweight for the first 22 fights of his career.

On 29 November 2002, Mikkel Kessler fought for his first championship and defeated former WBC Super Middleweight Champion Dingaan Thobela over twelve rounds to become the International Boxing Association Champion.

Mikkel Kessler gave up this belt to fight for the more recognized WBC International title on 11 April 2003, versus Craig Cummings.

Mikkel Kessler defended his title on three occasions before finally hitting it big on 12 November 2004.

Mikkel Kessler's stablemate, Mads Larsen, another Danish World Class fighter, was set to challenge Manny Siaca for the WBA Championship in Copenhagen.

Larsen was injured in training and Mikkel Kessler took the fight on short notice, winning the title.

Mikkel Kessler defended his title against Anthony Mundine in Sydney in June 2005 and Eric Lucas in January 2006.

On 14 October 2006, Mikkel Kessler was elevated to WBA Super Champion status after winning the WBC title in a unification battle against WBC World Champion Markus Beyer at the Parken Stadium.

Mikkel Kessler defended his WBA and WBC titles on 24 March 2007, at the Parken Stadium against WBC mandatory challenger Librado Andrade.

Mikkel Kessler then met fellow undefeated champion, Welshman Joe Calzaghe, in a bout that would unify his WBA and WBC super middleweight championships with Calzaghe's WBO and The Ring titles.

Mikkel Kessler knocked out Sartison in the final round to regain his title.

Mikkel Kessler successfully defended his title against Danilo Haussler by third-round knockout on 25 October and against Gusmyl Perdomo by fourth-round knockout on 12 September 2009, one minute into the round.

Mikkel Kessler's first fight was against Andre Ward on 21 November 2009 for Kessler's WBA Super Middleweight Championship in the Super Six World Boxing Classic.

On 21 November 2009 Mikkel Kessler lost his championship to Andre Ward.

Mikkel Kessler expressed in the post fight interview that he couldn't get out of first gear due to the headbutts and excessive clinching from Ward, and that he was eventually blinded by one of Ward's headbutts which on the post fight replay showed Ward ram his forehead directly into Mikkel Kessler's eye.

Mikkel Kessler suddenly announced his comeback, and fought against Mehdi Bouadla and scored victory by TKO.

Mikkel Kessler claimed that if he had lost this fight he would retire.

Mikkel Kessler was scheduled to fight against Robert Stieglitz in Copenhagen, Denmark at Parken Stadium, but the fight was cancelled due to a hand injury Kessler sustained in training.

In 2012, Mikkel Kessler moved up in weight class to light heavyweight.

Mikkel Kessler won via knockout in the fourth round, after getting dropped by a hard right hand in the first round.

Late in 2012, Mikkel Kessler went up against Brian Magee of Northern Ireland for the WBA Super middleweight title.

Mikkel Kessler won the last showdown between the two boxers, in Herning, Denmark.

The faced each other at stage 2, after Mikkel Kessler lost his first fight against Andre Ward, and Froch won a close fought contest against Andre Dirrell.

Mikkel Kessler caught Froch with a big right hand in the 11th round to wobble him, but it was too late in the fight.

On 1 February 2015, Mikkel Kessler announced that he was in a "state of retirement" via social media.

On 16 October, Mikkel Kessler revealed he had been hit by Lyme disease and his return would be delayed until 2018.

In February 2018, speaking to BT, Mikkel Kessler said, "I just can't find the motivation to go through with it all," confirming he would stay retired.