Haye predicts wins for Froch, Khan and Mitchell

By Sean McDaniel: WBA heavyweight champion David Haye is becoming something of a Nostradamus predictor in the boxing world. In his latest round of predictions, the 29-year-old Haye is predicting that British fighters Amir Khan, Carl Froch and Kevin Mitchell will all win their next fights coming up. Haye, who seems to have an eye for talent, says this in article from The sun about Froch’s upcoming April 24th fight against former WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler in the Super Six tournament:

“Carl has a big test in front of him when he takes on Mikkel Kessler in Denmark, but he [Froch] has shown what a tough competitor he is. Kessler can boast so much experience at the highest level, he gave Joe Calzaghe a real hard time when they fought in Wales” [in November 2007]. This is a fight in which Kessler was beaten by 12 round decision by Calzaghe.

Haye says “A worry is that Kessler is coming into this [April 24th Super Six bout] off the back of a surprise defeat against Andre Ward [last November 21st in their stage 1 Super Six tourney bout] and he’ll be looking to put that right against Carl, though I don’t think he will.”

What Haye fails to mention, however, is that Kessler will likely have a huge benefit by fighting in front of his home fans in Denmark. Kessler was considered by many people to be the best fighter in the super middleweight division up until recently when he was beaten in an upset loss by Ward. However, despite being defeated by Ward in an 11 round technical decision last November, Kessler remains one of the best fighters in the Super Six tournament and possibly the 2nd best fighter overall. Froch will have to use his power to try and stop Kessler, because he doesn’t figure to have the boxing skills to beat a guy like Kessler, who can both punch and box extraordinarily well. This isn’t going to be a fight in which Froch will have a huge audience supporting him like he did in his last fight in Nottingham.

Speaking of Amir Khan, Haye says “Amir has learned his lesson getting knocked out by Breidis Prescott and he’s not about to make the same mistake again. I know his opponent Paulie Malignaggi [who Khan will be fighting on May 15th in New York] pretty well from the amateur scene when I represented Great Britain and he was fighting for the United States. He [Malignaggi] had crazy hairstyles even back then but he is a real tricky customer in the ring. I take Khan to do a number him, though.”

Most boxing fans feel that Khan should be able to beat Malignaggi by decision or possibly by knockout. Malignaggi has lost two out of his last four fights, and before that he had questionable wins over the likes of Lovemore N’dou and Herman Ngoudjo. This is a very winnable yet dangerous fight for Khan. If he or fails to win impressively, it could hurt his ability to become a big star in the U.S, which is one of Khan’s goals.

Haye says “Kevin Mitchell is the one who has really caught by eye in recent fights. He will be the next one up to win a world title. He’ll be fighting [WBO light welterweight interim champion] Michael Katsidis probably near the end of May and it could be a peach of a world title contest. I have known Mitchell since he was a kid and I was getting a bit worried because he seemed to be fighting such low level opposition. I was concerned about him making the necessary step up. But the performance he put in against Prescott, the big Colombian who knocked out Khan, showed an unbelievable maturity. Kevin showed he can fight to a plan against Prescott, his timing and skill were world class.”

Mitchell defeated Prescott by a lopsided 12 round decision in December 2009 by using movement and pin point shots to earn a decision. Prescott spent the better part of the night chasing Mitchell without luck and missing with many of his power shots.

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