By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis (26-2, 21 KO’s) intends on making British fighters Kevin Mitchell (31-0, 23 KO’s) pay for his comments when he steps in the ring against him on May 15th, at the Upton Park, West Ham, London. In a press release sent out today, the 29-year-old Katsidis had this to say about Mitchell: “I’ll be relegating Mitchell to an also ran next weekend. I’m so happy to be back in the UK. I’ve got so many happy memories of London, especially as it was here that I beat Graham Earl and really burst on to the scene. This time I’m really looking forward to shutting Mitchell up. All I’ve read for weeks are his comments in the press calling me an old man and telling everyone how he is going to beat me up. We’ve got a message for him: ‘Your dead mean, mate.’ I’m a true gladiator and I’m going to serve up Mitchell’s head on a plate next weekend. The fight is going to be the bloodiest of the year in the UK, but it’s going to be Mitchell who is going to feel the pain and not me.”
I totally agree with you, Mr. Katsidis. I think you’re going to wipe the deck with Mitchell on the 15th and cause a lot of tears for his fans at Upton Park. I just hope no one starts throwing anything. I’d hate to have Katsidis hurt by some angry fans. The way I see it, this fight is going to be a total route from start to finish with Katsidis pummeling Mitchell with power shots from the very get go.
Mitchell has been saying that he intends on slugging with Katsidis and taking the fight to him. I don’t believe that for a second. If Mitchell is saying he’s going to be attacking Katsidis, I’m thinking he’ll be doing just the opposite. I see him running all night long, even more than he ran in his fight with Breidis Prescott in December. Mitchell ran like the dickens in that fight and put me to sleep watching it. I literally had to drink two full cups of espresso to stay awake through the entire 12 round fight. By the end of it, I had Prescott easily winning the fight by an 8 to 4 margin.
To my disbelief, Mitchell won the fight, which took place in the UK by the way, by the lopsided scores of 118-111, 117-111 and 119-110. I thought it was the worst decision I ever seen, other than Carl Froch’s 12 round win over Andre Dirrell last October. I looked at the Mitchell-Prescott fight again last night and in second viewing, I thought Prescott should have won by a 9 to 3 margin. It was one of those fights were one guy is attacking (Prescott) and the other guy is running and throwing little more than jabs.
There’s no way I could give the decision to Mitchell under those circumstances. This is why I sure hope that Mitchell actually comes to fight Katsidis, because I don’t want to see anymore of that god awful running like last time. Katsidis might have to knock Mitchell cold to get the win, though. It might not be easy getting a decision fighting in Mitchell’s home country. Katsidis will either have to knock him out or really batter him to ensure that he gets the win. The good thing is that it probably won’t be hard to do if Mitchell comes to fight like he’s been promising.
I personally see Mitchell as like the 10th or 11th best lightweight in the division. That’s a huge a huge compliment because he’s still really young and should get better in the future, provided that Katsidis doesn’t wreck him on the 15th. You never know what can happen when you’re facing a huge puncher like Katsidis. He could ruin Mitchell if he beats him too badly.
Katsidis says “I ever asked promoter Frank Warren to stage a press conference for tomorrow so I could look Mitchell in the eye and tell him that I’m going to break his heart on May 15th. We’ve not come face to face yet, but when we do he’s going to realize that he’s bitten off more than he can chew.”
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