By Eric Thomas: Lightweight contender Kevin Mitchell (31-0, 23 KO’s) thinks that Manny Pacquiao should agree to take the blood tests for a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., according to an article from Sportinglife. Mitchell, 25, who will be facing WBO lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis on May 15th, has this to say about Pacquiao and the blood testing issue: “I think Mayweather’s got a fair point with the testing. If someone won’t take a drug test then there’s a problem there.” Pacquiao, the World Boxing Organization welterweight champion, is okay with taking limited blood testing for performance enhancing drugs up to a point. Pacquiao previously wanted the blood testing, which Mayweather asked to be taken randomly, to be stopped 24 days before his planned fight with Mayweather.

Eventually, the fight fell apart because of this, as Mayweather wanted the blood testing to be conducted until at least 14 days before the fight. However, a gap of 24 days is a huge amount of time to let there be a lapse of drug testing. Pacquiao feels that the blood testing weakens him. He also doesn’t like that Mayweather is the one driving this issue rather than it coming from the Athletic Commission.

Mitchell says “Mayweather has taken the test, so what’s the big deal? I’m not sure about Pacquiao’s reason for not giving blood, though maybe it’s different for him. It’s pretty impossible to win titles at flyweight all the way through to welterweight. I’ve come up from featherweight to lightweight. Now you try getting me up to middleweight. Even if I was lifting weights to reach that size, I wouldn’t be fit enough to box.” Pacquiao has moved up from feather, super featherweight, lightweight, light welterweight and welterweight in the past five years. Recently, Pacquiao defeated Miguel Cotto to capture the WBO welterweight title.

Instead of struggling with Cotto, Pacquiao totally dominated him and looked more powerful. There is talk of Pacquiao possibly moving up in weight once again to fight the winner of the Yuri Foreman vs. Cotto fight to try and capture the WBA light middleweight title. That would be an 8th world title in as many divisions for the 31-year-old, 5’6” Pacquiao. The way that Pacquiao, a small fighter, has moved up from weight class to weight class, putting on muscle and beating the champions with ease, has put Floyd Mayweather on guard. He suspects that Pacquiao might be using performance enhancing drugs, which is why he’s asked him to take the random blood tests.

“I think the American’s have been doing it for years. They all fly through weight divisions but still look like He-Man. British fighter such as Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe were beating Americans at their right weights, but when we go up a couple of weights we struggle for strength. The Americans go up five weights and are still smashing people. That only happens in comic books. Roy Jones and Shane Mosley have been caught and something’s happening out there. British fighters are clean but I wouldn’t put money on Americans being clean.” Mitchell seems to have gotten away from the point. This isn’t about an American, it’s about Pacquiao.

Mitchell will be facing his biggest test of his career when he takes on WBO lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis on May 15th in Upton Park, London. Mitchell faces one of the biggest punchers in the lightweight division and has to figure out a way to deal with Katsidis’ big punching power to get a win. Mitchell did a great job of defeating the hard hitting Breidis Prescott last year in December to earn a 12 round decision. However, Katsidis is much more accurate with his punches than Prescott, which could make it very tough for Mitchell. Additionally, Katsidis carries his power late, unlike Prescott, and is good at staying close to his opponents to pressure them. Katsidis moves well and is excellent at cutting off the ring on his opponents. Mitchell may think that he can punch and move like he did against Prescott, but he could discover that he’ll have only once chance of beating Katsidis – by beating him in the trenches. If Mitchell has the power, stamina, chin and speed to beat Katsidis then he’ll win. If he’s missing in one or two of these areas, Mitchell will likely take a beating and get stopped by Katsidis.