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The Viking Warrior is a Danish, two time WBA & WBC Super Middleweight champion. He holds the distinction of facing two of Britain's best contemporary fighters, Joe Calzaghe (L 12) and Carl Froch (W 12).

Kessler fought three years as an amateur. He finished his amateur career with a record of 44-3. He won the Danish Championship five times in addition to the Norwegian Championship and the Scandinavian Championship.

Professional career
Kessler originally campaigned as a light middleweight and then middleweight for the first 22 fights of his career. He won 16 of his first 22 fights by knockout.  

After 3 years and 22 fights, Kessler settled in the super middleweight division and continued his hard hitting streak, dispatching 6 of his first 7 opponents by KO, thereby improving his record to 29-0 with 22 KO.

Titles
On November 29, 2002, Kessler fought for his first championship and defeated former World Boxing Council (WBC) super middleweight champion Dingaan Thobela over twelve rounds to become International Boxing Association champion. He gave up this belt to fight for the more recognized WBC International title on April 11, 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 November 12, 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 October 14, 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 Round 3.

Calzaghe
In 2007, Kessler then met fellow undefeated champion Joe Calzaghe. The bout took place at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium in front of over 60,000 fans (then, the largest indoor boxing event in European history). On the line were the WBO,WBA,WBC and Ring Magazine super middleweight titles. Kessler lost the unification bout via unanimous decision in a hard-fought bout.

Second Reign
Kessler faced Dimitri Sartison on June 21, 2008 for the vacant WBA Super Middleweight regular title. Kessler won the match by knockout in the 12th round.

Super Six Tournament
On November 21, 2009 Kessler lost his title to Andre Ward. The fight was stopped in the eleventh round due to cuts on Kessler's face caused by what was deemed unintentional headbutts by Ward. The fight went to the scorecards and Ward was far ahead by scores of 98-92, 98-92, and 97-93 at the time of the stoppage.

On April 24. 2010 Kessler returned to form against Britain's undefeated WBC Champion Carl Froch in a match that was (to date) one of the best matches in Danish boxing ever. The contest went the distance and Kessler was handed a close (borderline controversial) unanimous decision with scores of 115-113, 116-112, and a highly suspect 117-111. With the win, Kessler became a two time WBC Champion, handing Carl Froch his first defeat in the process.  

Eye Injury
A day after defeating Froch, Kessler announced he was withdrawing from the Super Six tournament due to the worsening of the eye injury he suffered in his fight against Ward. According to Ekstra Bladet newspaper, Kessler stated he was seeing double. Doctors told him he must take a nine month break from boxing.

Return
Kessler returned to the ring in June 2011 with an impressive 6th round KO of Medhi Boudadla.​