Kevin Mitchell faces Felix Lora tonight

By Scott Gilfoid: #1 ranked WBO lightweight contender Kevin Mitchell (32-1, 24 KO’s) will be facing Felix Lora (14-8-5, 8 KO’s) in what Mitchell hopes is an easy tune-up fight to get him ready for a likely title shot against World Boxing Organization lightweight champion Ricky Burns in 2012.

The Burns title shot depends on how Mitchell does against Lora tonight and on whether Burns can beat challenger Paulus Moses on March 10th.

Mitchell hasn’t fought since beating John Murray by an 8th round TKO last July, and will probably be very rusty tonight. For Mitchell, this will be only his second fight in the past two years, as he took a year off after being stopped in the 3rd round by Michael Katsidis in May 2010. Mitchell couldn’t handle Katsidis’ left hook power in that fight and after getting hurt a couple of times by him, Mitchell turned around showing his back to Katsidis and covered up in a fetal ball. It was embarrassing to see to tell you the truth, but not unexpected. Mitchell was bound to get knocked out like that sooner or later because he had beaten knockout artist Breidis Prescott by hitting and running in December 2009, but in the Katsidis fight, Mitchell tried to actually fight him one on one. It didn’t work and Mitchell was quickly obliterated.

In tonight’s fight against Lora, Mitchell will have to use a lot of movement if he wants to avoid getting knocked out again. Mitchell is a good domestic level fighter but if you put him in with the top lightweights like Brandon Rios, Katsidis, Miguel Vazquez, Robert Guerrero, Miguel Acosta, Paulus Moses, Urbano Antillon, Anthony Peterson, Antonio DeMarco, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Jorge Linares, John Molina, Hank Lundy, and Richard Abril, he’d lose. Lora can punch if nothing else, so if Mitchell tries to get brave and fight him head to head, he’ll likely get knocked out again. Mitchell is a good fringe contender but not real world class in my eyes.

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