By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis (26-2, 21 KO’s) feels that he’ll wear unbeaten British challenger Kevin Mitchell (31-0, 23 KO’s) down in the later rounds of their fight this Saturday night in Upton Park. “I believe when it comes to the eighth, ninth and tenth rounds and he’s [Mitchell] going back to his stool and he’s lucky to be able to stand up, he’s cut everywhere and he’s got nothing left in his body, nothing I say beforehand will have made a difference in the fight,” Katsidis said to the BBC.

Katsidis, 29, hasn’t been nearly as vocal as his counterpart Mitchell in the pre-fight hype for the fight. Incredibly, the 25-year-old Mitchell has seemed at times to be looking past Katsidis, bellyaching about the big money that fellow Brit WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan is getting for his fight and feeling that Khan is ducking him for a fight. None of that will mean anything if Mitchell gets stomped by Katsidis on Saturday night. It does show how confident Mitchell is, though. It could end up biting him on the backside if he gets beaten up and taken out by Katsidis. In looking at Mitchell’s fight with Breidis Prescott, which is probably his toughest bout of his career, Mitchell really didn’t get a whole in that fight. His movement and ability to duck the big looping punches from the tall and gangly Prescott saved Mitchell from taking a hammering from the hard hitting Colombian.

However, Katsidis, 5’7”, is a lot shorter than the 5’11” Prescott and his punches are a lot shorter and more compact. Katsidis doesn’t miss a lot of his shots because he generally doesn’t throw his shots until he’s close enough to land with a high degree of accuracy. Also, Katsidis isn’t as much of a head hunter as Prescott. He’s comfortable mixing his punches up to the body and head rather than focusing exclusively on head shots like Prescott was doing in his fight with Mitchell. But the thing that Mitchell may have problems with the most is that Katsidis doesn’t get discouraged and doesn’t wear down in the later rounds.

Katsidis just keeps coming and coming and tends to tire out his opponents with his constant pressure and heavy shots. He ends up beating them into submission in many cases. Katsidis takes a lot of punishment as well, but because of his excellent chin, heavy hands, and his ability to fight well with cuts, he is hard to deal with. Mitchell will probably move a lot to try and keep away from Katsidis, hoping that he might be able to win the same kind of fight he did last time out with Prescott. However, that might not work against Katsidis because he stays close to his opponents much like Ricky Hatton used to do against fighters that move a lot. Mitchell may be forced to fight Katsidis’ type of fight whether he wants to or now.

The good thing is that Mitchell can slug a little if need be, but the question is whether he has the chin, power and the heart to take the kind of punishment that Katsidis will be putting on him on Saturday night. Thus far, none of Mitchell’s fights suggest that he’ll be able to stand up to the kind of pressure that Katsidis will be putting on him. He won’t be able to rely on running from Katsidis like he did against Prescott, because Katsidis won’t let him. Mitchell will have to fight or fold. I’m predicting that Mitchell fold around the midpoint of the fight when the going gets too tough for him. Mitchell hasn’t had any real life preparation for the kind of fighter that he’ll be meeting in the ring on Saturday night and I see him being badly exposed by Katsidis. The loss will pretty much finish Mitchell’s dreams of fighting Khan, of course. But the bright side is that he won’t have the burden of belly aching about being ignored by Khan anymore.