By Peter Wells: Kevin Mitchell is on a mission to capture the hearts of the British public like others including, Henry Cooper, Lennox Lewis, Nigel Benn, Ricky Hatton and now David Haye have done. Mitchell will fight infront of his hometown fans at West Ham United’s football ground, and live on Sky Sports. Mitchell is exciting but fighting on the same night as another British star, Amir Khan, it’s a risk that may not pay off. While people are trying to get sleep before getting up at early hours in the morning for Khan-Malignaggi, Mitchell will be fighting against a super tough Aussie who brings excitement wherever he fights.

Michael Katsidis is a powerful boxer who has underrated boxing skills. But one thing that isn’t underrated is his power and sheer excitement. With a fan friendly style he fights like the warrior his family originates from. He is of course half Greek and takes that Greek war mentality into the ring with him. His last trip to the UK was at Wembley where he stopped Graham Earl in the 5th of a back and forth war seeing both fighters touch down. That was over 3 years ago but Michael after a bad 2008 – where he suffered his only 2 defeats – he’s come back to form beating Angel Ramirez, Jesus Chavez and outpointing Vicente Escobedo.

Kevin Mitchell is unbeaten in 31 pro fights with 23 knockouts and is coming off a career best performance against rival Amir Khan’s only conqueror, Breidis Prescott. It was a gracious display in which he showed his boxing side under new trainer Jimmy Tibbs. But he can also slug it out and give the fans a great night of entertainment. He won the 2008 British fight of the year when beating Carl Johanneson by 9th round stoppage.

If both fighters hang it all on the line then we can enjoy a great 12 rounds or less. But Mitchell is too clever to brawl with someone as dangerous as Michael Katsidis and will work of a strong jab and land combinations and big right hands to stop Katsidis getting into any rhythm. Michael’s defence tends to get worse as the fight goes along and is prone to cuts. I don’t see this going the distance as Katsidis will be stopped after around 10 punishing rounds due to cuts and if it goes to the cards, Kevin will be far enough ahead to get his shot at the WBO Lightweight title.