By Scott Gilfoid: The April 2nd bout between EBU lightweight champion John Murray (30-0, 18 KO’s) and lightweight contender Kevin Mitchell (31-1, 23 KO’s) figures to be a decent domestic level scrap in the UK. The winner of the fight can have bragging rights that they’re the best lightweight in the UK.

The loser will find himself in a pretty poor state where they’ll have to do some climbing if they ever hope to get a shot at one of the lightweight champions. But let’s not get things twisted here.

Both Murray and Mitchell are utterly beatable, and I don’t see either of them as future champions in the lightweight division unless fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez, Michael Katsidis, Humberto Soto, Miguel Vazquez, Roberto Guerrero, Ali Funeka, Miguel Acosta, Mike Alvarado, Juan Diaz, Lenny Zappavigana, Antonio DeMarco, Ameth Diaz, Urbano Antillon, Anthony Peterson, Brandon Rios, Mercito Gesta, Paulus Moses, Czar Amonsot and Vicente Escobedo suddenly decide to bail on the lightweight division and move up in weight.

I rate all those fighters well above Murray and Mitchell. And I see a number of other lightweights that could probably beat Murray and Mitchell as well.

Like I said, I see the Murray vs. Mitchell bout as a good domestic level fight, but that’s about it. The winner will only prove that he’s the best domestic level fighter in the UK, but not in the world. The winner of this fight is going to have major problems if/when they step it up against the fighters that I’ve listed above.

I don’t see how Mitchell and Murray can go for long without fighting one of them, and once that happens, we’ll see a replay of the Katsidis vs. Mitchell fight with Mitchell getting destroyed in three short rounds. Doesn’t matter if it’s Murray that wins the April 2nd fight, because he’s going to be in a world of hurt when he finally steps it up from the local fighters he’s been dining on during his career.