By Scott Gilfoid: Kevin Mitchell (32-1, 24 KO’s) was supposed to have a soft fight next month on February 10th against little known 2nd tier fighter Stephen Ormond. However, Ormond pulled out of the fight leaving the 27-year-old Mitchell without an opponent for his fight at the York Hall in Bethnal Green, London, England.

Given how lightly Mitchell was going to be matched, it’s not going to be hard to find someone of equal if not better talent to fight. Mitchell needs to face a quality opponent, because he’s been out of the ring since John Murray by an 8th round TKO last July. Mitchell, #1 WBO, #7 IBF, wants to become a superstar in 2012, but he’s going to have to fight a lot better people than Ormond or Murray if he wants to accomplish that.

Mitchell has a high enough ranking to face some really good fighters this year if his promoter will allow him to do so. Mitchell isn’t going to become a star knocking off domestic level competition that’s for sure.

Mitchell told Ifilm London “I want to do a big job this year and turn into a super star. It’s what I’ve always dreamed about. This year I’m going to smash it.”

Mitchell might want to try and at least avenge his 3rd round TKO loss to Michael Katsidis from two years ago before he starts painting a rosy picture of greatness. If can’t at least beat Katsidis then he needs to pipe down and get into his place at the domestic level. It’s one thing taking the Amir Khan approach of avenging his knockout losses by saying you know you can beat the guy in a rematch, but it won’t mean anything unless Mitchell actually does that.

This is why it’s so sad that Mitchell was going to waste the first quarter of 2012 facing a soft touch like Ormond. Instead of facing a 2nd tier fighter, Mitchell needs to put some fire under his management’s backside to get him Katsidis in February, and then a fight against WBO interim lightweight champion Ricky Burns followed by Brandon Rios, Antonio DeMarco, Robert Guerrero, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Miguel Vazquez, Jorge Linares and Miguel Acosta.

I doubt Mitchell will have fought any of those fighters by the end of 2012. I can’t see it happening. I can see Mitchell being put in with softer fighters to inflate his record even more. So by this time next year, Mitchell will still be yapping about how he’s going to be superstar and he’ll be a year older. But he may be better off not facing those guys because the only guy out of that bunch that I can see Mitchell beating is Burns. The rest of them – Gamboa, Rios, DeMarco, Guerrero, Linares, Vazquez and Acosta – would likely slaughter Mitchell even worse than Katsidis did.