Kevin Mitchell could get rematch with Linares on October 17th

By Boxing News - 07/01/2015 - Comments

mitchell455(Photo credit: Sumio Yamada) By Scott Gilfoid: After getting stopped in the 10th round last May in a fight against WBC lightweight champion Jorge Linares (39-3, 26 KOs), #3 WBC Kevin Mitchell (39-3, 29 KOs) is poised to get yet another shot at the title in a rematch against Linares on October 17th in Venezuela.

It’ll depend on how things go with the July 18th fight between challenger Anthony Crolla and WBA lightweight champion Darleys Perez. If Perez wins that fight, then Linares will likely face Perez in a unification bout. If Crolla wins, then Linares and Mitchell would wind up facing each other again.

Mitchell has tried three times to capture world titles and in each case he’s been knocked out. It’s unclear how many more chances he’s going to get at winning a strap. He certainly didn’t do anything to rate another fight, and you’ve got to feel sorry for #1 WBC Dejan Zlaticanin if he gets passed up by Linares in order for him to fight Mitchell yet again.

“It could be in October, possibly on Saturday 17, but that will be determined later,” Linares’ representative Jose Machek said to Skysports.com. “It could be a rematch with Britain’s Kevin Mitchell, or a fight with the Colombian Darleys Perez if he wins in his next match. If he does, then we would be talking about a unified WBA-WBC titles.”

Mitchell was stopped in the 10th round by Linares on May 30th at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Linares dropped Mitchell with a flurry of shots, and the fight was halted after he got back up. Mitchell had suffered a cut over his right eye in the 8th round, and struggled trying to see out of the eye.

In the 5th round, Mitchell dropped Linares with what appeared to be an elbow to the head. To his credit, Linares got to his feet and battled back to dominate the remainder of the fight. Overall, it was a pretty one-sided fight from start to finish with Linares totally dominating a very wild and desperate Mitchell.

I don’t know how many boxing fans would be interested in seeing Mitchell and Linares fight each other again. I mean, there’s no reason for the two of them to fight each other again because the fight was one-sided even before Mitchell suffered the eye injury, so I don’t see for what reason there would be for them to do it a second time.

Mitchell will be pretty lost fighting in a foreign country in Venezuela without his UK fans to support him. Mitchell has fought the vast majority of his fights at home in the UK, and he seems to fight better when he’s being cheered. If the fight takes place in Venezuela rather than the UK, then it’s likely that only a small amount of Mitchell’s British fans will be able to fly over to see the fight live.



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