By Sean McDaniel: Former British and Commonwealth super featherweight champion Kevin Mitchell (31-1, 23 KO’s) wants a piece of EBU lightweight champion John Murray (31-0, 18 KO’s) after watching him struggle to defeat challenger Karim El Ouazghari last Saturday night in a not too impressive performance from Murray.

Mitchell, who hasn’t fought since last year when he was beaten by Michael Katsidis, is eager to get a shot and Murray and feels like he knows how to beat him.

In an interview at thesun.co.uk, Mitchell said “He’s someone I definitely want now…He’s a very good come-forward, aggressive fighter. At the body and head, he whips them in and he’s got a good engine. I’d ping him, move off him, hit him with fast shots and hit him straight down the line. I’d step off him, not go back in lines and I’d hold the centre of the ring with him.”

This all sounds good, but Mitchell hasn’t fought since his loss to Katsidis in May of last year, and there’s the question of how effective Mitchell would be after a long layoff like that. Surely, he can pick things back up and be back to close to where he was before after a tune-up or two, but if he goes straight into a fight with Murray, he’s going to be taking a big risk.

Mitchell might be off by a large margin from where he was before, and he might have problems with a busy fighter like Murray. He’s not as fast nor as powerful as Katsidis, but he may be able to tire out a rusty Mitchell and take him out just the same. Mitchell looked a little fleshy in his recent appearance on Sky Ringside. He’ll have to take off some weight and that could further hurt him in a bout against Murray.