By Lee Elford: Kevin Mitchell goes boldly into the spotlight in front of the watching eyes of the boxing world’s very own judges on July 9th chomping at the bit to demonstrate his claims that the Michael Katsidis blip was largely due to the apparent disrupting circumstances in his life.

In May last summer, it was Mitchell’s rite of passage to defeat the Aussie banger and set up a shot at world lightweight champ Juan Manuel Marquez. Most in attendance and watching on TV were united in believing this was Mitchell’s stage at his beloved West Ham Utd’s Upton Park stadium to introduce him to world level. As they say, the rest is history as a strangely under cooked Mitchell was picked apart by Katsidis before eventually being stopped in the third. This was clearly not the same fighter that put on a boxing master class against Breidas Prescott. It would later be revealed that Katsidis’s preparations, as with all his fights, involve him completely shutting out his home and family life, where he trains in Thailand for 3 months with utter concentration and absolutely no distractions.

According to Frank Warren, Mitchell was shopping at Lakeside on the eve of the fight, while sleeping on his Mum’s couch after huge rows with his girlfriend left him having to escape the fracas, all while he was training for the biggest night of his life. Today, Kevin Mitchell is a new animal, dedicated to his training and not about to fall prey to his own status as one of the brightest talents in the game. His trainer Jimmy Tibbs has assured us he has eyes all over the place that will give him a ‘tinkle’ should his protégé stray from the course.

‘The devil with the face of an angel’ dub has been doing the rounds on some internet forums, replicating Manchester Utd’s Dimitar Berbatov, and this is just a hint in what makes Kevin Mitchell an interesting character in the boxing world. Like Ricky Hatton, he loathes letting his fans down, and he claimed himself while waiting to depart the dressing room for his last fight that he knew he wasn’t right, not the “caged Lion” he usually feels like, and should have pulled out. Nether- the- less, come out is what he did and that is testimony to the genuine, raw, fighting warrior that is Kevin Mitchell. Whatever has been said or currently perceived, Mitchell is a world class talent who was not living ‘the life’ – and now coincidentally, in Kevin Mitchell, John Murray will be coming up against his very own Michael Katsidis, a boxer who at his best, has proven that he has the minerals to mix it up with the big boys at lightweight. Murray has not faced anyone of note in comparison.

To his credit he captured the European Lightweight title and all the other ‘domestics’ though has never been as clean and slick as Kevin Mitchell, but brawl he can and the equally likeable yet charismatically lacking in comparison mancunian has shown he loves a tear up. Out for over a year before his last fight against the little known Spaniard Karim El Quazghari, it was Murray’s ‘tune up’ for Kevin Mitchell. Yet what materialized was a messy affair where Murray took ‘too many’ good shots and combinations before ultimately coming through. Murray is a come forward brawler and styles make fights, yet Mitchell’s boxing ability and burning desire to come back in explosive fashion should over whelm Murray and prove too much for him. The only qualm for Mitchell is the fact that he has been out for 14 months and this could have a negative effect, although his experience in the big fights should tell. An intriguing encounter, all fingers point the way to a fight which has all the makings of an explosive one, where the winner’s life will change for the better and the loser goes back to the ‘day job’.

Mr Mitchell…..I’m going to say ‘Yes’…