By Scott Gilfoid: The September 22nd fight between WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (34-2, 9 KO’s) and Kevin Mitchell (33-1, 24 KO’s) will come down to whether or not Mitchell has the in-fighting skills needed to beat the 5’10” Burns at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland.

The reason why it’s going to take in fighting to win this fight for Mitchell is because Burns tends to do a lot of grabbing, clinching, wrestling, and other mauling types of fighting.

There’s no doubt that Mitchell is the better fighter in terms of power, offensive skills and movement, but Burns has a way of turning the fight into a wrestling match in close and Mitchell might not be ready for those kinds of tactics.

Mitchell is already up against it by virtue of the fight taking place in Scotland. I don’t care if a bunch of Mitchell’s fans will be showing up and screaming their heads off, they’re still not going to be nearly as loud as all Burn’s supporters in this fight. The crowd will be in Burns’ favor, and you got to figure that it’s going to be tough on Mitchell. I just hope the referee does a good job of enforcing the rules by limiting the clinching, wrestling and such from Burns. It’s not interesting to watch a fight when one of the fighters is grabbing 24/7. This is supposed to be boxing.

With the likelihood that Mitchell might be wearing Burns on September 22nd by having him literally all over him clinging with his arms in a tight embrace, Mitchell has to prepare for it ahead of time by working on throwing shots while being held. Mitchell’s trainer needs to go over this like it’s a science because if Mitchell can’t throw any shots due to Burns grabbing and holding him 24/7, he’ll probably lose the fight even if he lands more shots. The fight is in Scotland, as I mentioned earlier and I don’t see Mitchell winning a decision there unless he gives Burns a terrible beating.

The way to do that is for Mitchell to practice slugging his sparring partners in the head while being held. Mitchell can’t play nice guy with Burns because he’ll just get grabbed all night long and end up losing badly. Mitchell has to use whatever arm is free when being held and tag Burns.

If both arms being held then Mitchell needs to work one free so he can hit Burns until he lets go. Above all, Mitchell can’t play nice guy other Burns will be all over him like a big spider all night with a trapped fly that he’s wrapping up in a web.