By Kasim Aslam: British lightweight boxer Kevin Mitchell (32-1, 24 KO’s) last night challenged Paul Malignaggi (30-4, 6 KO’s) to a showdown on social networking site twitter. Mitchell, looking for an opponent after a TKO decision against fellow country man John Murray decided to try and get under the skin of Malignaggi through various tweets mocking the Americans new ventures in Acting and Modelling.

In one tweet Mitchell says “Twitter king is @PaulMalignaggi really? Has no banter what so ever, deffo needs to get into modelling will fit right in. Odds on fight?” If Malignaggi accepts the fight it would be the 3rd British fighter he would have faced losing the first to Ricky Hatton and then Amir Khan. After more clowning around Mitchell finally laid down the challenge “Who thinks I should give @PaulMalignaggi a final payday before he goes into acting?” with Paulie replying “Yo anyone who wants me or @Brandon_Rios1 next, can come see us in America.” A direct and obvious response to Mitchell.

Whatever decides to happen it would be great if the two of them could get into the ring to slug it out. Mitchell impressive against Murray would fancy his chance over Malignaggi, who to be fair has considerably improved from Amir Khan in 2010. Although nothing is official it seems that Kevin Mitchell is raring to go after his proposed fight with Brandon Rios fell through. However the fight could hinder on the location as Mitchell is on a curfew in the UK.

Malignaggi was not the only target for Mitchell as impressive youngster Brandon Rios was drawn into the ‘banter’.

Rios replying to Mitchell and a fan states “dude r u for real if he (Kevin Mitchell) was a class above me then why is he not champ f*** really dnt noe s*** about boxing” Rios will instead face John Murray on the undercard of Margarito vs Cotto II on December 3rd. Many who could not understand why Mitchell didn’t take the fight had their questions answered as Mitchell later tweeted “The reason I couldn’t fight @Brandon_Rios1 in America is simple, I’m on a curfew from the police, not something I’m proud of, Kev” and then admitting “I can fight in UK but not allowed out the country for 3months after that il be fine.I wanted @Brandon_Rios1 but That’s my own doing, Kev”

Whatever the outcome for these 3 boxers it seems that twitter has become a powerful tool for fighter to cement their place in the boxing world. We have seen drug accusations, ‘ducking’ accusations and now challenges between fighters on twitter. I for one enjoy this sort of stuff as it gives new insight into boxers and really allows things to get on a personal level (Kevin Mitchell tweeting Brandon Rios’ PR person Nancy) which would do nothing but create an exhibition of a fight.