Background and career
Mikkel Kessler (born 1 March 1979) is a Danish professional boxer who competed from 1998 to 2013 and again from 2026. He held multiple super-middleweight world championships, including the WBA title (Super and Regular versions) three times between 2004 and 2013, and the WBC title twice between 2006 and 2010. In 2020 Kessler was admitted into the Danish Sports Hall of Fame.
He began his vocation early, training in boxing gyms at age 13. Before Kessler started his boxing training he was a skillful track runner and he also played football at the local club.
Kessler competed five years as an amateur (2/93-1/98). He finished his amateur career with a record of 44 wins and three losses. He won the 1995 European Cadet (15-16 age group) 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.
Kessler originally campaigned as a light middleweight and then middleweight for the first 22 fights of his career.
After 3 years and 22 fights, Kessler settled in the super middleweight division. Kessler continued his hard hitting streak, dispatching 6 of his first 7 opponents by KO, thereby improving his record to 29–0 with 22 KO. On 29 November 2002, 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. He gave up this belt to fight for the more recognized WBC International title on 11 April 2003, versus Craig Cummings. Kessler won by a knockout in the third round. He defended his title on three occasions before finally hitting it big on 12 November 2004. His 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 Kessler took the fight on short notice, winning the title. Kessler defended his title against Anthony Mundine in Sydney in June 2005 and Eric Lucas in January 2006. On 14 October 2006, 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. He won by knockout at 2:58 in round 3. Kessler defended his WBA (Super) and WBC titles on 24 March 2007, at the Parken Stadium against WBC mandatory challenger Librado Andrade. The fight was scored as a shutout (120–108) by all three judges.
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. The bout took place at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on 3 November 2007, in front of over 50,000 fans (then the largest indoor boxing event in European history), and Kessler lost the unification bout via unanimous decision, with the judges scoring the fight: 117–111, 116–112, 116–112.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
