By Scott Gilfoid: It kind of goes without saying that the September 22nd bout between WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (34-2, 9 KO’s) and Kevin Mitchell (33-1, 24 KO’s) is little more than the future victim for Adrien Broner (24-0, 20 KO’s), who is now moving up to lightweight and has been reportedly told that he’ll be getting the #1 WBO ranking.

I’m sorry but I see both Burns and Mitchell getting spanked big time when one of them is forced to defend the WBO strap against Broner. If I was to predict future events based on the past, then I supposed Burns, if he beats Mitchell, will vacate the title rather than face Broner in the ring and have to deal with his Mayweather-esque talent. I mean, that’s what happened last time Burns was about to fight Broner when Burns held the WBO super featherweight title. I know the story already. Supposedly, Burns couldn’t make weight for super featherweight and that’s why he moved up in weight rather than facing Broner. Okay, I’ll buy that, but what will you say if Burns does it again? Will it be just another coincidence or will it be Burns ducking Broner?

I don’t have a clue who’s going to emerge the winner of the Burns-Mitchell fight in September. They’re both so flawed that it’s like picking two terrible alternatives. I think Mitchell has got the better talent of the two. He’s more mobile, he hits harder, and has more of a pro style of fighting. Mitchell’s fighting style would be effective around the world if he could handle power shots. Unfortunately, we saw Mitchell crumble in the only fight where he faced some power in combination with speed in his 3rd round TKO loss to Michael Katsidis in 2010. By the way, I had Breidis Prescott soundly beating Mitchell in their fight in 2009. I scored it nine rounds to three for Prescott.

I don’t really see much in Burns. He was matched against exclusively soft opposition after beating a weight drained Roman Martinez in September 2010. Burns defended the WBO super featherweight title three times and then vacated when he was finally about to fight his first quality opponent in Broner. Burns was then given the WBO lightweight title outside of the ring, and he’s since beaten Paulus Moses, another weak opponent last March.

Burns does a lot of clinching and putting his opponents in arm bars. It’s painful to watch him fight, because you just want to flag down the referee to tell him to take points off for the constant holding and the arm bars.

Will Burns’s “technique” work against Mitchell? I doubt it. He’ll be moving too much and will keep Burns from grabbing a hold of him. The one advantage that Burns will have is in the weight department. He’ll likely be weighing well over 140 and possibly 150 by the time that he enters the ring against Mitchell. This no doubt will give Burns a big advantage in this fight because Mitchell is really a small fighter and doesn’t scale in at high weights when he comes into the ring.