By Tim Walsh: World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye feels that unbeaten lightweight contender Kevin Mitchell (31-0, 23 KO’s) will win one of the lightweight titles in 2010. In an article at ESPN, the 29-year-old Haye says “Kevin Mitchell will win a world title this year. I think Mitchell could beat anyone in the world at his weight right now. I wasn’t sure he had what it takes, but against [Breidis] Prescott he showed world class skills and timing against a dangerous opponent. He’s [Mitchell] got it and it’s the right time for him.” I don’t know that I agree with Haye’s assessment of Mitchell’s chances at winning a title or his skills for that matter.

Mitchell did beat Prescott by a 12 round decision in December 2009, but Mitchell did it by punching and running for the full 12 rounds against a flawed opponent. Prescott is considered by many as a one-dimensional slugger with poor accuracy. The fact that he was able to stop Amir Khan in one round in 2008 is more the result of Khan fighting the wrong fight rather than how good Prescott is as a fighter.

Had Khan used his head and boxed Prescott instead of slugging with him, he would have likely easily beaten the Colombian fighter without suffering so much as a scratch in the process. Instead, Khan made the mistake of jumping on Prescott from the opening bell and running into one of his big left hooks. The rest is history. Prescott dropped Khan twice and took him out.

Mitchell moved away from Prescott, staying away from his power shots and landing an occasional punch of his own to get the victory. It was a good win, but hardly one that I would get excited about given how one-dimensional and crude Prescott is as a fighter. At the same time, Mitchell didn’t show me that he could throw enough punches while standing in the trenches to beat a better fighter than Prescott.

Mitchell’s next opponent WBO lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis (26-2, 21 KO’s) is equally flawed, and probably not much better than Prescott in ability. Katsidis, 29, has been beaten in two out of his last five fights, which isn’t a very impressive statistic.

Since being beaten in back to back fights by Juan Diaz and Joel Casamayor in 2008, Katsidis has taken on softer opponents, beating Angel Hugo Ramirez, Jesus Chavez and Vicente Escobedo. Some would say that Katsidis has turned his career around by winning these three fights in a row. I don’t see it that way. I think Katsidis has beaten three good fighters, but ones not in the class of Casamayor or Diaz. Chavez is old, Escobedo unproven, and Ramirez is a 2nd tier fighter.

If Mitchell beats Katsidis, he will technically be the World Boxing Organization lightweight champion. However, I see Mitchell being able to hold onto the WBO title about as long as it will take to drink a cup of coffee. There’s the matter of top contenders Ali Funeka and Anthony Peterson that Mitchell would have to deal with. I see both of those fighters as being better than Mitchell. While I know Mitchell will be able to win his first non-mandatory defense if he stays away from those guys, I think he’ll be beaten once he has to fight either of them.

I also have serious doubts that Mitchell will be able to beat Katsidis as well, even thought I think Katsidis is a terribly flawed fighter. There are other top lightweights that I feel would also be too good for Mitchell, such as Edwin Valero, Antonio DeMarco, Yuri Romanov, Urbano Antillon, Jose Alfaro, Miguel Acosta, Joan Guzman, Paulus Moses, Casamayor, David Diaz, and Marco Antonio Barrera.

None of them are currently ranked in the top 15 by the WBO, but they are ranked high by the WBA, WBC and IBF. Valero is the WBC lightweight champion and possibly the best fighter in the division. There’s also Juan Manuel Marquez, who along with Valero, is probably the best fighter in the division. I don’t see Mitchell beating him either.