By Jim Dower: Lightweight contender Michael Katsidis (28-5, 23 KO’s) will be fighting next Friday in a 10 round scheduled bout against 29-year-old light welterweight Albert Mensah (24-3-1, 10 KO’s) at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 13th. Katsidis, #9 WBO, is the much more experienced fighter in terms of having faced quality opposition compared to Mensah.

Mensah, 5’10”, has advantages over the 5’7″ Katsidis in the height and reach department, and that could balance things out a little more to where they could be fairly even. Katsidis has taken some beatings as of late, losing three out of his last four fights against Juan Manuel Marquez, Robert Guerrero, and Ricky Burns. Katsidis didn’t really take a lot of punishment against the light hitting Burns, but he did eat a fair amount of jabs in the fight in losing by a 12 round decision.

Katsidis is moving up in weight for this and it should be a welcome relief for him not to have to work hard to squeeze down to the 135 pound lightweight weight limit. Katsidis doesn’t really have the speed or the power to compete against the very best at light welterweight. He can do well against a lot of them, but there are a number of fighters at 140 that just have too much power, speed and boxing ability for Katdisis to have a realistic chance of beating them.

Mensah is probably not going to be a big issue for Katsidis, but if Katsidis plans on staying at 140 for long, there’s going to be a number of fighters that will be a problem for him and he’ll definitely struggle when and if he starts facing the better opponents. The lightweight division would have been perfect for Katsidis, but he was unable to get past some of the roadblocks in front of him. Now many of those obstacles are gone with Guerrero and Marquez moving up in weight, but now Katsidis has moved up as well.