By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is looking setup a fight between #7 IBF Kevin Mitchell (36-2, 26 KO’s) and IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez (34-3, 13 KO’s) on the undercard of the Carl Froch vs. George Groves rematch on May 3rd at Wembley Stadium in London, UK. Hearn is making an offer to Vazquez for him to defend his title against the 29-year-old Mitchell.
For the fight to go through, Mitchell will have to beat journeyman Mikheil Avakyan (21-11-4, 8 KO’s) this Saturday night in their scheduled 8 round bout at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. This is a mismatch, so it’s pretty much a given that Mitchell will beat this guy.
“We are talking to Kevin Mitchell, we’re talking to Miguel Vazquez…about a potential shot for him [Mitchell],” Hearn said to Sky Sports. “He’s [Mitchell] ready for the step up….Mitchell’s ready for a big fight. I made some approaches to them [Vazquez’s management]. We’re making him an offer. We’re talking money with them at the moment, so it’s a fight would like to make.”
I honestly don’t see Mitchell as deserving a title shot. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s only been 2 years since Mitchell fought for a world title against former WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns and was blown out in just 4 rounds by the Scottish fighter. To be sure, Mitchell has won his last three fights since then in beating weak opponents Sebastien Benito, Marco Lopez and Karim El Ouazghari, but we’re not talking quality opposition, are we? I mean, if Mitchell is going to be given another world title shot, he should at least have to fight one good fighter such as Yuriorkis Gamboa or Jorge Linares to earn another shot. It’s hardly fair for Mitchell to be given a gift-wrapped world title shot after beating the fodder that he’s beaten in the last two years. It sends a wrong message when a fighter get a world title shot off of empty wins like the ones that Mitchell has had in the past two years.
Mitchell stands no chance of beating a talented champion like Vazquez, none whatsoever. I hope Hearn isn’t under any illusion that Mitchell actually has a chance of beating Vazquez, because that’s simply not going to happen in this lifetime. Mitchell will end up getting clowned and beaten likely worse than what Burns did to him. The thing is Vazquez would dominate Burns if that fight were to be made, so that kind of tells you right there about what Mitchell’s chances would be if he were tossed into the ring with Vazquez. It would be a huge buzz kill for UK fans, especially if this were the co-feature bout.
Vazquez is coming off of an impressive 12 round decision win over Denis Shafikov from last February. I’d favor even Shafikov to dominate Mitchell at this point in his career. Mitchell was a decent little fighter until Michael Katsidis destroyed him in 2010 in 2010 in losing a 3rd round TKO. The year before that, Mitchell beat Breidis Prescott by a controversial 12 round decision in a fight that took place in the UK. I had Prescott beating him by a 9 rounds to 3 score.
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