By Scott Gilfoid: Some boxing fans of WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s) are really making a big deal about his 4th round TKO victory over Kevin Mitchell (33-2, 24 KO’s) last Saturday night at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. Some fans see this as a sign that Burns is the best fighter in the lightweight division.

That’s pretty sad because Burns really didn’t accomplish anything at all other than beating up on a smaller, ring-rusty fighter that had already been badly exposed by Michael Katsidis two years ago.

Mitchell has barely fought at all in the last two years since the Katsidis beating, and really Mitchell needed to prove that he still had after that fight. He needed to prove himself against an actual contender BEFORE he got the shot against Burns. But what did we see happen? Instead of fighting a couple of contenders to show that he was still cogent, Mitchell turned around and fought John Murray and Felix Lora, neither of which I saw as contenders. Yeah, yeah, I know Murray technically was a contender when Mitchell fought him, but I didn’t see him as one.

To me, Murray was still little more than an unproven domestic level fighter that had never actually beaten anyone that you could even remotely call world class. The guys that Mitchell should have fought to prove that he was back physically and mentally was Sergio Thompson, Sharif Bogere, Robert Guerrero and Urbano Antillon. Did we see that? Nope. We saw Mitchell matched against a journeyman level Lora and what I personally feel was a domestic level Murray. It’s no wonder then that Mitchell was beaten up by the physically bigger Burns last Saturday night.

I don’t see beating an over-matched Mitchell as being a big deal. Burns is still totally unproven in my eyes, and until he fights Thompson, Bogere, Antillon and especially Adrien Broner, then he’ll just be a paper champion in my eyes. I’d like to see Burns fight someone good, but I just feel that he’s probably going to keep getting matched up against guys like Mitchell for as long as possible to keep the WBO strap in his hands.

Honestly, Mitchell doesn’t belong in the lightweight division. He’s too small for the division, and he’s not fought and beaten anyone to give you an indication that he belongs at this weight. I don’t know why Mitchell hasn’t been put in with Sergio Thompson and Sharif Bogere, because he for some reason was ranked above them by the World Boxing Organization. I don’t understand that ranking at all, because all you got to do is sit down and watch one fight of Thompson and Bogere to see that they’re worlds better than the likes of Mitchell. Why did the WBO rank Mitchell above them? It just seems like illogical ranking if you ask me.

Burns really needs to step it big time and finally start facing some quality fighters for a change. He fought nothing but mediocre challengers when he held the WBO super featherweight strap and now we’re getting the same thing now that he’s the WBO lightweight champion.