By William Mackay: The May 15th clash between World Boxing Organization lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis (26-2, 21 KO’s) and number #1 ranked challenger Kevin Mitchell (31-0, 23 KO’s) will be taking place at Upton Park, in West Ham, London. The location of the fight will benefit Mitchell, a Brit, and there could be as many as 25,000 fans coming to watch the bout. Obviously, Mitchell is more than pleased, because even though he’s not the champion, he’ll get to fight at home in front of a large crowd because his promoter Frank Warren won the purse bid for the fight.

Mitchell, 25, is taking a big step up in competition in this fight. Katsidis is probably a lot better than any other fighter that Mitchell has faced before during his seven year pro career. Mitchell says he’s going to be bringing it on May 15th, and that he intends on slugging with Katsidis a little bit. That remains to be seen. Mitchell seems to have altered his style of fighting recently, changing from a brawler to more of a boxer/puncher.

Against Breidis Prescott last year, Mitchell boxed the entire fight and through sporadic pot shots to get the win. It wasn’t pretty, but Mitchell got the win in any event. However, it’s doubtful that Mitchell can count on doing to same against a skilled fighter like Katsidis because the Australian is quicker on his feet than Prescott, better at cutting off the ring and very difficult to box. Katsidis crowds his opponent, forcing them to fight whether they want to or not.

Katsidis has lost to Juan Diaz and Joel Casamayor in the past, but fought both of them very tough despite losing. Mitchell may have little choice but to fight in the trenches if he wants to beat Katsidis. Running and throwing pot shots, which worked for Mitchell up to a point in the Prescott fight, won’t likely be effective against Katsidis. He’s too fast to be boxed from the outside. As such, Mitchell better hope for his sake that his chin is tough enough to absorb the monstrous shots that Katsidis will be hitting him with.

The crowd could help Mitchell keep his motivation up, but if Katsidis tags him with something too big, we could see Mitchell kissing the canvas once or twice and maybe getting stopped. In Mitchell’s fight against Carl Johanneson in Marcy 2008, Mitchell took some heavy punishment in the fight, and appeared to be knocked down in the 6th.

The referee didn’t rule it as a knockdown, but he might as well have done so for all Johanneson cared, because he was all over Mitchell for the remainder of the round, badly hurting him with big shots over and over again. Mitchell continued to take punishment in both the 7th and 8th rounds before eventually taking out a tired out Johanneson in the 9th.

Johanneson is a decent puncher, to be sure, but he’s not in the same class as Katsidis in terms of punching power and I can see Mitchell having a lot of problems against the Australian unless Mitchell opts to run all night long like he did in his fight with Prescott. Even with that, I doubt will be enough to slow Katsidis down for more than a few seconds. Mitchell’s only real chance of winning, I think, is if his chin can hold out and he can possibly squeak out a close, probably controversial decision.