By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch believes that #1 WBO Kevin Mitchell 33-1, 24 KO’s) can actually beat WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (34-2, 9 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland. Froch is picking Mitchell to win the fight by a KO, believe it or not.

Froch told BoxNation “I think he’ll [Mitchell] stay on top of Burns with educated pressure and his power punches will see him to a late stoppage.”

That sounds like fairy tale stuff to me. In a perfect world where a referee is keeping control of clinching, maybe Mitchell could do what Froch is talking about and scoring a nice little knockout. But I don’t believe that the referee is going to keep control over Burns’ clinching in this fight, and without a referee keeping Burns in check, he’ll likely clinch Mitchell all night long to prevent him from getting his shots off.

To say that the fight will be boring and as ugly as heck to watch is an understatement. It’ll be excruciatingly boring to watch to where you might need some good coffee to keep awake through it all.

As for the particulars of the fight, Burns will be making his second defense of his World Boxing Organization strap. He beat Paulus Moses by a nice little 12 round clinch-fest last March in Glasgow. Moses looked helpless all night with Burns grabbing him in clinches and arm bars to keep him from getting off his shots. When there was separation between the two, Moses often got the better of the action and looked like the better fighter. However, Burns did a great job of clinching to keep Moses from throwing. Since few referees control clinching, Burns was able to win the fight with the right amount of throwing followed by a quick clinch to keep from getting hit with return fire from Moses.

Mitchell has the speed and power advantage of Burns, which isn’t saying a whole lot because Burns can’t punch and isn’t very fast either. But what good will Mitchell’s offensive advantages be with Burns grabbing him all night long. This is different kind of boxing that we’re talking about here and Mitchell isn’t equipped to deal with that kind of fighting.