Michael Katsidis vs. Graham Earl II this Friday, July 4th in Australia

By Boxing News - 06/30/2014 - Comments

katsidis23By Scott Gilfoid: In what has to be seen as an old timers fight that is 7 years too late, Michael Katsidis (29-6, 24 KO’s) will be fighting a rematch against 35-year-old Graham Earl (26-4, 12 KO’s) this Friday, July 4th in a scheduled 12 round bout for the vacant World Boxing Union light welterweight title at the Rumours International, in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.

The fact that there’s a minor title on the line is troubling because it makes no sense to have these two fighters battling for a minor title given that Earl hasn’t fought in the past 5 years since 2009, and Katsidis, 33, has fought only once in the past 2 years. Katsidis stopped fighting after a loss to Albert Mensah in April 2012, and then didn’t come back until March, 2014 when he beat a fighter named Eddy Comaro by a 3rd round knockout.

Katsidis previously fought Earl in an exciting fight 7 years ago when he stopped him in the 5th round in February of 2007 in a fight where both guys were rocked. But that was ages ago, and Katsidis’ career tanked badly when he stepped it up a couple of levels and suffered defeats to Robert Guerrero, Juan Manuel Marquez, Juan Diaz, Joel Casamayor, Ricky Burns and Mensah. I personally thought that Katsidis was totally robbed in his loss to Burns in 2011, because he had Burns trapped against the ropes for virtually the entire fight and was nailing him with countless shots. I scored the fight 10 rounds to 2, but the judges saw it different. The fight, by the way, took place in London, UK.

In his prime, Katsidis had some decent wins over the likes of Kevin Mitchell, Vincente Escobedo, and Jesus Chavez. But those were pretty much the best wins of his career, and those guys were far, far below the top fighters in the lightweight division.

The Katsidis-Earl II fight will take place at light welterweight instead of lightweight, which should help Katsidis, because he’s obviously put on more size as he’s aged. But it probably wouldn’t matter which weight this fight takes place at, because Katsidis is the all-around better fighter than Earl. This one has mismatch written all over it.

Before walking away from the sport in 2009, Earl had lost 3 out of his last 4 fights in defeats against Katsidis, Amir Khan [1st round TKO], and Henry Castle [1st round TKO].



Comments are closed.