By William Mackay: If Kevin Mitchell (31-0, 23 KO’s) thinks he’s found a fighter that will make him look good and give him a big career boost, he could wind up sadly mistaken next month when he fights World Boxing Organization lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis (26-2, 21 KO’s) at Upton Park, West Ham, London. Katsidis, 29, says “I’ve got a message for him [Mitchell]. I’m no one’s stepping stone. I’ve been in fights where I’ve ended guys’ careers. I’ve heard a lot of mouth coming from Mitchell these last few weeks, but I’ve not seen anything in the paces I’ve been watching that has got me even remotely worried.”

I can understand what Katsidis is talking about. Before Mitchell’s fight with Breidis Prescott last year in December, Mitchell looked like a slightly taller, weaker version of Katsidis. Mitchell had the same wide open defense, the same tendency to try and mow down his opponents and the same kind of straight ahead style of fighting. Mitchell hadn’t really faced anyone until he fought Prescott, and it was easy for Mitchell to run over most of his opposition, with the exception of his bout against Carl Johanneson, who badly hurt Mitchell in the fight.

In the Prescott fight, Mitchell chose to change his tactics, perhaps knowing that he might not survive for long if he was to stand and trade with the big punching Colombian. Mitchell then spent the entire 12 rounds running, occasionally punching and trying to avoid Prescott’s huge shots. For the most part, Mitchell succeeded in limiting the damage from the powerful Prescott, but it was far from an impressive performance.

Mitchell, who was fighting in his home country of England for the fight, but he still has a lot of questions that need to be answered about his chin. Katsidis will be the one that will answer those questions. Mitchell won’t be able to run for 12 rounds against Katsidis, because the Australian is a lot better at cutting off the ring than the tall, slender Prescott. Indeed, if Mitchell wants to beat Katsidis on May 15th, he’s going to have to actually stand and fight Katsidis and try matching him shot for shot.

Can Mitchell do this? We’ll see about that. With what will likely be a large British crowd backing him, Mitchell could take more chances and try to fight Katsidis and not run. I think Mitchell will try to fight Katsidis initially, but once he tastes the Australian’s power, he’ll turn tail and run – or at least try to.

By running, Mitchell will be able to survive longer than if he was to stand and trade with the powerful Katsidis. In terms of opponents, Mitchell is tailor made for Katsidis. Before he changed his style for the Prescott fight, Mitchell liked to stand in front of his opponents throwing power shot after power shot.

Like I said, it worked for Mitchell against his earlier opposition, but he ran into big problems when he was put in with Johanneson, a good but puncher not someone in the class of Katsidis. Mitchell learned his lesson from that close call, and opted to run from Prescott, the next bit puncher he faced. My guess is Mitchell will run like a rabbit against Katsidis to avoid getting knocked out in front of his large home audience. I expect Katsidis to win this quite easily, although I’m still whether the scores might end up looking kind of odd.