By Scott Gilfoid: Kevin Mitchell (37-2, 27 KO’s) weighed in heavy for his secondary check weigh-in this morning for tonight’s fight against Ghislain Maduma (16-0, 10 KO’s), and it’s now unclear whether Mitchell will still be eligible to become the IBF mandatory challenger if he beats Maduma tonight. Their bout is an IBF lightweight eliminator bout on the Carl Froch – George Groves card at Wembley Stadium.
Mitchell, who had looked huge over week ago before he started cutting weight, came in at 10st 6lbs 11oz. The weight limit increase is 10lbs, and Mitchell definitely went over that. For his part, Maduma had zero problems hitting his check in weight.
In the big scheme of things, it might not matter that Mitchell won’t be eligible to fight for the IBF mandatory spot tonight, because if Maduma beats him the way some boxing fans think he will, it really won’t matter for Mitchell. At the end of the day Mitchell would still need to be able to beat Maduma, and honestly that’s a big ask. At 29, Mitchell is still trying to come back from the 4th round stoppage loss to Ricky Burns from 2012 in the last fight where Mitchell was matched against a real fighter.
Mitchell’s win his last four fights since then but against little known opposition with either poor records or victories over guys that even hardcore fans likely have never heard of. Mitchell’s promoter has matched him softly since the Burns fight, and that’s why it’s really difficult to tell which Mitchell will show up tonight. Will it be the Mitchell that Burns and Michael Katsidis both easily stopped, or will it be the Mitchell that knocked out John Murray in the 8th round in July of 2011. That was Mitchell’s last big win and we’re talking three years ago, aren’t we?
In looking at Mitchell posing with heavyweight Anthony Joshua last month, I thought Mitchell looked huge, and nowhere close to 135. He looked at least 150-155. That’s a good 15-20 lbs. over the lightweight limit. To some boxers it’s no big deal to take off that kind of weight, but that’s when it’s one weigh-in. But when you have a secondary weigh-in on the day of the fight, then you see problems because the fighter needs to limit how much water they drink when rehydrating. Obviously, Mitchell rehydrated too much and now it looks as if he won’t have the opportunity to fight for the IBF mandatory spot.
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