FanHouse JoeCalzaghe

Denmark's WBA champion, Mikkel Kessler, is considered boxing's premier 168-pounder -- and for good reason.

And it is among those same reasons why the 30-year-old "Viking Warrior" is favored to take down 25-year-old former Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward in defense of his title on Saturday night at Oracle Arena.

"Mikkel Kessler's just been in with a higher quality of opponent. And Kessler's been involved with more big fights, fighting, more or less, for 12 rounds since Andre Ward has been a professional boxer," said Doug Fischer, co-editor of RingTV.com. "And now he's fighting in Andre Ward's hometown of Oakland, Calif., which is going to be nothing new to him."

Former Olympic gold medalist, Andre Ward, calls upcoming rival, Mikkel Kessler, of Denmark, "absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt the most skilled" fighter that he will have faced over the course of his nearly five-year professional career.

"He's the champion. He's very tough. I take nothing away from Mikkel Kessler," said Ward, who will put his 20-0 record with 13 knockouts on the line in pursing Kessler's WBA 168-pound title on Nov. 21 before a partisan crowd at Oracle Arena in Oakland. "At the same time, this is what it's all about -- taking the challenge and rising to it. And I plan on doing that 11 days from now."

Their first-round clash is part of Showtime's Super Six Middleweight World Boxing Classic.

Although Denmark's Mikkel Kessler is nicknamed "The Viking Warrior," he could easily borrow the monicker of another fighter, "The Road Warrior," given how he has embraced the prospect of defending his WBA crown against American Andre Ward on Nov. 21 in the latter's hometown of Oakland, Calif.

"I've been here for three weeks now in California. The climate and the time change are very good. You have to be there at least three weeks beforehand to adapt," said Kessler, 30, who will face Ward (20-0, 13 knockouts) in a 168-pound, first-round clash of Showtime's Super Six Middleweight World Boxing Classic at Oracle Arena.

"It took me about three or four days to get used to it, but I'm in a very good rhythm now, and my conditioning hasn't been better. I just fought eight rounds today, and it's been one of the best eight rounds of my life. I'm looking forward to Ward, and I'm so ready for Ward," said Kessler (42-1, 32 knockouts), who has fought only once in the U.S.

"I think after this fight, people are going to recognize me better. I'm going to show them how my boxing style is," said Kessler. "I'm ready to show the American boxing fans how I fight, because it's difficult for me, as a Danish guy, to get known in the U.S., so here's my big chance for it."

For Puerto Rican champion Miguel Cotto (34-1, 27 knockouts) and Filipino challenger Manny Pacquiao (49-3-2, 37 KOs), there never has been a more career-defining moment than this one.

Each will be battling for the pride of his countrymen as well as his status among boxing's best fighters, pound-for-pound, when the combatants step into the ring for Saturday night's mega-fight at The MGM Grand In Las Vegas.

After the jump, some of the most knowledgeable sources in the boxing world offer their predictions for a clash at the same site where Floyd Mayweather easily decisioned Mexican great, Juan Manuel Marquez, in September.

Former undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins will fight hard-punching Enrigue Ornelas on Dec. 2 at the Liacorous Center on the campus of Temple University in his hometown of Philadelphia.

The 12-round light heavyweight matchup for Hopkins (49-5-1, 32 knockouts) precedes an agreed-upon rematch with Florida's multi-champion Roy Jones (54-5, 40 KOs) that is slated for perhaps late January or early February, assuming Jones gets through his cruiserweight bout on the same night against Austrailia's Danny Green (27-3, 24 KOs).

Mark Taffet, Senior Vice President of HBO Sports Pay Per View, said Floyd Mayweather "clearly has proven his star status by generating the kinds of pay per view numbers that very few men in the history of the sport have ever generated."

FanHouse spoke to Taffet, the man in charge of HBO's Pay Per View, as he addressed Mayweather, the Nov. 14 megafight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto, the cable giant's "hunger to go younger" initiative geared toward drawing America's youth to the sport of boxing, and how the organization determines which fights are deserving of pay television status during this exclusive interview.

Despite big nights for the sport like we had on Saturday night, we're constantly hearing that boxing is a dying sport. Two of the biggest reasons for that are that no one can keep the weight classes straight and no one can keep the champions straight.

Ring Magazine deserves great credit for attempting to change that by establishing clear-cut criteria for determining its own champions, but I have two problems with the way Ring does things. The first is that the magazine ranks fighters in 17 different weight classes. That's too many. And the second is that the Ring ratings have so many vacancies at the top tthat only six fighters can be called Ring Magazine champions. That's too few.

So below is my attempt to list boxing's legitimate champions, using only the sport's eight traditional weight classes.

In March of 2008, Michael Buffer was lying on an operating table at the USC Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles.

The man known for igniting crowds with an electrifying introduction of boxers with his signature, copywritten phrase, "Lets Get Ready To Rumble," was receiving potentially life-- if not -- career-threatening neck and throat surgery.

"The prognosis early on was that I would have to have continuous radiation, which, of course would cause a problem with the saliva glands, which would mean I wouldn't be doing any more announcing," said Buffer, 65, whose operation removed a lymph node attached to his tonsils -- the source of a cancer called squamous cell carcinoma.

Denmark's Mikkel Kessler will attempt the third defense of his World Boxing Association super middleweight title on Nov. 21 against unbeaten Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward in Ward's hometown of Oakland, CA., during the first round of Showtime's Super Six World Boxing Classic -- a six-fighter event aimed at producing the sport's undisputed 168-pound champion.

The fighters set up their highly-anticipated matchup by winning impressively at seperate venues on Saturday night.

Denmark's World Boxing Association supermiddleweight champion, Mikkel Kessler, thrilled his countryman on Saturday at the MCH Messecenter in Herning, scoring his third straight knockout over mandatory challenger, Gusmyr Perdomo of Venezuela, in round four of his second defense.

Showing little affects from an 11-month layoff, having been out of the ring since October's third-round stoppage of Germany's Danilo Haussler, Kessler rose to 42-1 with his 32nd knockout against Perdomo (16-3, 10 KOs), a 33-year-old southpaw.