By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Frank Warren has reportedly won the purse bid for the WBO bout between number #1 contender Kevin Mitchell (31-0, 23 KO’s) and World Boxing Organization lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis (26-2, 21 KO’s) after placing the winning bid of $515,000, beating the Katsidis’ manager Brendon Smith’s bid of $501,000. What this means, of course, is that the Katsidis-Mitchell fight will now most probably take place in England rather than Australia, giving Mitchell, 25, an advantage of fighting in front of what will likely be a sellout crowd wherever the fight winds up.
As such, Katsidis, even though he’s the interim WBO lightweight champion, will have to fight in Mitchell’s neck of the woods. This may not matter all that much because Katsidis is a huge knockout puncher and he has a way of shutting the yaps of hostile crowds with his huge shots. However, I just hope that Katsidis gets the benefit of the doubt if the fight goes to decision.
That’s the tricky part. Any time a fighter goes into the home town of another fighter, there’s the potential of losing a questionable decision. I saw Mitchell’s fight against Breidis Prescott last year in December, and I thought it was the worst decision I’ve seen in my life. Mitchell won the fight by a lopsided 12 round decision over the visiting Prescott. I had Prescott winning easily by at least four rounds.
Mitchell ran around the ring most of the fight, jabbing and throwing a rare pot shot here and there. On contrast, Prescott stalked Mitchell all around the ring, landing huge shots to the head and body in every round. Prescott’s punches looked much more powerful compared to Mitchell’s.
Prescott missed a lot of his punches, there’s no question, but he also threw a ton of them in every round, so it more than made up for his poor accuracy. But the running that Mitchell was doing was just awful for me to watch. I know Mitchell did what he had to do to keep from being decapitated by Prescott, but it was bloody awful to watch and to see Mitchell rewarded by getting a lopsided decision just put my hair on end. Like I said, I thought it was the worst decision I’ve seen in my life.
Whatever the case, I don’t see the Mitchell-Katsidis fight going to decision, so the judging probably matter in this fight unless Mitchell runs around the ring all night long. Actually, I think Mitchell probably will run from Katsidis rather than trade. I think Katsidis is the much bigger puncher, and if Mitchell tries to stand and trade with him I see bad things happening for him.
Katisidis is a world class puncher, and unless you’re really good, he’s going to blast you apart. I think Mitchell is good lightweight, but I have ranked at around the 20 spot in the division, not the number #1 ranking that the WBO has given him. He has too many flaws in my view, and I don’t see him as a top 10 fighter. I see Katsidis exposing Mitchell’s limitations.
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