By Jim Dower: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Seth Mitchell (24-0-1, 18 KO’s) will be facing what could be a really tough fight for him against 6’4″ Chazz Witherspoon (30-2, 22 KO’s) on April 28th in a scheduled 12 round bout on the undercard of the Bernard Hopkins vs. Chad Dawson rematch at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City in Newark, New Jersey.

Mitchell, #7 WBO, is the one to watch in this fight because he’s got some good power, and he could go some places if he can wait around until IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko retires from the sport. Mitchell, 6’2″, won’t do much until then unless he can position towards facing WBA champ Alexander Povetkin. That’s still a tough ask for the 29-year-old Mitchell because he would be going into the fight with little more than a puncher’s chance of winning, because he doesn’t have the same technical skills or the work rate to beat someone like Povetkin.

Witherspoon, 30, is vulnerable and might be made to order for Mitchell, because he’s been stopped twice in the last four years against Chris Arreola and Tony Thompson. Witherpoon looks good against lesser fighters in the B level class, but when he takes on fighters at the A level, he struggles and loses. Witherspoon has the jab to beat Mitchell, but he’ll have to take a lot of shots early on and get Mitchell deep in the fight to try and take advantage of his questionable stamina. Witherspoon has won his last four fights against Livin Castillo, Alexis Mejias, Ty Cobb and David Saulsberry, but none of those guys have been a real threat to Witherspoon. Mitchell will bring a lot more to the table on April 28th, and put Witherspoon in the situation where he’ll have to fight for his life to keep from getting knocked out.

Mitchell has mostly faced 2nd level opposition during his four year pro career. This is being done because Mitchell didn’t really have any kind of amateur career, so he’s learning on the job at the pro level He’s done a great job given his lack of experience, but he still looks really flawed at this point. Mitchell is coming off of an important win over Timur Ibragimov in a 2nd round TKO. Ibragimov made it easy for Mitchell by looking scared and standing directly in front of him to make things easy. Mitchell is a good fighter, but he’s probably not going to be knocking everyone out once he starts facing better opposition.