By Scott Gilfoid: British former super featherweight contender Kevin Mitchell (29-0, 22 KO’s) is making a huge mistake in taking on Colombian slugger Breidis Prescott (21-1, 18 KO’s) this Saturday night on the undercard of the World Boxing Association light welterweight clash between champion Amir Khan and challenger Dmitriy Salita at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle, Tyne and Wear.
I almost feel sorry for Mitchell, because he’s going to have his backside handed to him by Prescott in this fight. Mitchell, 25, with his style of fighting in which he goes right after his opponents trying to slug with them, is tailor made for a fighter like Prescott. I see Mitchell as being nothing more than a sacrificial lamb for Prescott. Mitchell doesn’t have a prayer in this fight, not with his style of fighting.
Let me tell you this is going to be a very easy fight for Prescott. Mitchell has taken punishment against the largely B class level that he’s fought during his six year pro career and on December 5th, he’s going to be asking too much of his limited talent to beat a fighter like Prescott. Mitchell, 5’8” is moving up in weigh to the lightweight division due to problems making the super featherweight weight limit.
However, Mitchell should have been eased into the new weight class a little more slowly against a less dangerous fighter than Prescott. You can see this is a big gamble being taken by Mitchell’s management in the hopes of getting a big win, which would increase Mitchell’s stature almost immediately given that the fight is taking place on the undercard of the Khan-Salita title fight. What’s more likely to take place is Mitchell being totally destroyed and humiliated in front of a large British audience. Mitchell can’t fight Amir Khan’s battles for him. If they want someone to beat Prescott, it’s going to take someone a lot better than Mitchell or Khan to get the job done.
The only hope that I can see coming out of this fight is that Mitchell at least looks competitive for a few rounds before he’s nailed into the turf by the hard hitting Prescott, because that’s about all I can good about this fight. Mitchell is the equivalent of Joe Frazier going up against a George Foreman-like Prescott. He basically no chance. Like Frazier, Mitchell will make the mistake of trying to go right at Prescott and will be asking for trouble almost immediately. It isn’t that Mitchell doesn’t have good power of his own, it’s that he doesn’t have anything close to the same kind of power that Prescott has.
Also, Mitchell is considerably shorter than Prescott at 5’8” compared to 5’11”, and has much shorter arms than the Colombian as well. Even if Mitchell has been working on staying in the outside and fighting at aq distance, I can’t saee him doing well with that style. His arms are much too short for him to find any success on the outside against the long-armed Prescott. And at close range, Mitchell will be at the mercy of Prescott’s huge hooks and uppercuts.
Prescott mowed down Amir Khan last year in a 1st round knockout in September, a fight in which Khan foolishly tried to slug with Prescott in the opening seconds of the round and was dropped by a series of left hooks. Now Mitchell may be a good super featherweight, but I don’t place him in the same class of Khan. I see Khan as being much better than Mitchell. Never the less, Mitchell is counting on beating Prescott on Saturday night, getting a title shot against the WBO title holder.
Following that, if successful, Mitchell is hoping to fight Khan. The chances of that happening are slim and none in my view. The more likely scenario is Prescott drilling Mitchell into the canvas and then afterwards a badly beaten and embarrassed Mitchell having to re-examine his ideas about fighting as a lightweight. Personally, I think Mitchell is too short, too weak, and too wide open defensively for the lightweight division.
For that matter, I don’t see Mitchell as championship material as a super featherweight either. I do think Mitchell is a good fighter and capable of remaining a contender at either super featherweight or lightweight, but not nearly good enough to beat the champions or the dangerous sluggers in either of the divisions.
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