By William Mackay: Unbeaten lightweight contender John Murray (31-0, 18 KO’s) is hoping to fill the gap left by Ricky Hatton by becoming one of the new stars in Britain with an impressive performance tonight against Kevin Mitchell (31-1, 23 KO’s) at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England.

Hatton recently retired from boxing and along with him he’s left a huge hole where there’s no real big star to fill it. Amir Khan, with his run and hit style of fighting, has failed to live up to the exciting standard that Hatton had set in the past. Could the all action Murray be the one to replace Hatton? Murray seems to think so.

“I’ve always looked up to Ricky. He has hung up his gloves now and there is a hole for someone to fill. I think if anyone is going to fill it, it will be me.”

First things first. Murray has to beat Mitchell tonight and he has to look good in doing. Murray didn’t exactly shine in his last fight against a very average 2nd tier fighter Karim El Ouazghari, having to work hard to win a 12 round unanimous decision in a fight that Murray took a lot of punishment in. That was a fight that a young Hatton would have easily won with his power.

However, there lies the difference between Hatton and Murray. Hatton had excellent power and could wear a fighter down with his body and head attacks. Murray isn’t the same kind of puncher that Hatton was and is slower and more of a plodder than he was. Murray isn’t able to leap in with left hooks or throw shots from as many different angles as Hatton. At 26, it’s doubtful he’ll ever be as good or as exciting as Hatton was in the past.

Mitchell has the skills set to really expose Murray’s slow hands and feet. However, the question here is whether the year off from boxing will negatively affect Mitchell. In the past, he would have made a slow fighter like Murray look bad but it’s unclear whether he can do that now coming off of such a long layoff. Mitchell was stopped in his last fight against Michael Katsidis in a third round TKO last year, and that could have Mitchell feeling less than confident going into tonight’s fight.