By Sean McDaniel: Amir Khan is picking British/Commonwealth super featherweight champion Kevin Mitchell (31-1, 23 KO’s) to knockout unbeaten John Murray (31-0, 18 KO’s) in their fight on July 9th at the ExCel Arena, Dockland, London, England. Speaking on his twitter account, Khan said “John Murray can’t even sell out his back garden, let alone a leisure centre. In my eyes, he will get knocked out by Mitchell.” The fight itself is considered a toss-up in the eyes of most boxing fans.

Mitchell was considered the better fighter than Murray last year, but with Mitchell’s 3rd round TKO loss to Michael Katsidis last year in May combined with Mitchell’s long period away from the ring following that loss, it’s thought that he might not be mentally and physically ready to take on Murray without a couple of tune-up bouts to try and get sharp. Indeed, this is a very risky fight for Mitchell, because normally fighters that have been out of the ring for such a long time tend to want to fight a tune-up before taking on an important fight like this.

Mitchell is really putting himself in a bad position where he could end up losing again just because of ring rust and further setting back his career. While it’s not a bad thing to lose fights when you learn something from it, it’s not a good thing to take really tough fights coming off a loss and a long layoff like Mitchell. In recent photos and video of Mitchell, he’s looked haggard and not as fresh as he was in the past. Perhaps he’s training hard and it’s taking a lot out of him, but whatever the case he looks worn going into this fight like he needs more rest.

Before losing to Katisdis, Mitchell had been trying to get Khan to face him. It’s hard to imagine that Mitchell ever calling out Khan, because he’s fallen so far with the Katsidis loss. Khan has moved on and accomplished a lot in the past year, while Mitchell has wasted it by doing nothing.