Kevin Mitchell vs Michael Katsidis Preview

Dave Oakes previews Saturday's Sky Sports lightweight battle between Kevin Mitchell and Michael Katsidis.

Eighteen months ago Kevin Mitchell’s career looked like it was coming to a premature end. He’d been out of the ring for over six months due to a persistent hand injury and was considering retirement. He’d also resorted to working nights on the railway lines just to pay his bills. It was a desperate situation for a boxer who turned professional in a blaze of publicity and was steadily laying the foundations of a seemingly impressive future.

Thankfully for Mitchell, and his British fans, he slowly recuperated from his injury and has fought his way to a world title shot, albeit the interim title. He takes on Aussie war machine Michael Katsidis at Upton Park this Saturday in what looks to be a mouth-watering clash of styles.

Katsidis, 26-2 (21KO’s), has fought at a higher level than Mitchell and is well known around the world after a series of exciting slugfests. This is his second reign as interim champion; he first won the title with a thrilling victory over Graham Earl, the Luton fighter retiring in the fifth round.

Katsidis and Earl put on a vicious battle; Earl was down numerous times whilst Katsidis was dropped heavily in the second round after the referee ignored Earl’s cornerman, Johnny Eames, who threw in the towel.

Katsidis lost the title to Joel Casamayor in his second defence. Again, it was a thrilling non-stop battle that saw both fighters tasting canvas, Katsidis eventually getting stopped in the tenth round. He followed that fight with a split decision points defeat to Juan Diaz in September of 2008.

The fights against Earl and Casamayor are a great example of all the things that are good and bad about Katsidis. He’s loves to have a war, hits hard and throws punches non-stop. The downside of that, like with many aggressive punchers, is that he tends to walk onto punches and is easy to hit. You get the feeling that he’s happy to take three shots to land one of his own, which may prove to be his downfall against a big puncher like Mitchell.

He’s gone on a three fight winning streak since the Diaz fight, beating Angel Hugo Ramirez and Jesus Chavez before getting a split decision victory over Vicente Escobedo in his last fight to reclaim the interim title.

Escobedo gave him a hard fight and was catching Katsidis with some heavy blows in the later rounds. Escobedo is a good fighter but he’s not quite world class and it’s got be worrying for Katsidis that he never really made a dent in him despite having the better of him in the early rounds.

This fight is definitely a step up in class for Mitchell, he’s never fought anyone in Katsidis’ class before but I view it as a calculated risk. Katsidis has shown signs of wear and tear in his last few fights, whilst Mitchell has looked a more mature fighter in his past two performances.

Mitchell, 31-0 (23KO’s), was too intent on knocking his opponents out early in his career and neglected the skills he’d used to good measure in the amateurs, where he won the ABA featherweight title aged just 18. He’s reverted back to skilful aggression since he’s moved to Jimmy Tibbs’ Peacock Gym and looks to be a much better fighter for it.

The highlight of the early stage of his career was winning the British super-featherweight title in a British classic against Carl Johanneson. He was reckless at times in that fight and was shaken badly by the heavy handed Johanneson in the sixth round, he showed his fighting spirit though and came storming back to stop Johanneson in the ninth round.

The most impressive victory of his career is undoubtedly his recent points defeat of Breidis Prescott, who famously stopped Mitchell’s big rival, Amir Khan, inside a minute. A lot of people thought the naturally bigger Prescott would catch Mitchell with a big punch at some point but Mitchell boxed superbly, he was tactically astute and fought in a controlled manner that we’d not seen previously.

He followed the Prescott win by blowing Ignacio Mendoza away in the second round, Mendoza isn’t a world beater but is usually a tough, durable fighter. The way Mitchell knocked him out cold shows that he’s carried his power up to lightweight.

There’s no way this fight will disappoint, there’s a crowd of around 18,000 expected at West Ham’s football ground and I doubt a single one of them will leave thinking they haven’t got their moneys worth, especially considering the strength of the undercard.

I think Katsidis’ best chance will be an early knockout, he’s got the power to do it but Mitchell’s never been dropped before and looks to have a solid chin. The longer the fight goes, the better Mitchell’s chance, Katsidis can slow towards the end of fights and is also prone to facial damage.

Katsidis is no stranger to being dropped and Mitchell can punch with either hand, I can definitely see the face first approach of the Aussie costing him dear at some point. It could resemble the Casamayor fight when he was dropped three times before being stopped.

I believe Mitchell will try to box rather than brawl, and if he can see off the first four rounds without taking too many heavy shots, which I think he will, I believe he’ll either take a unanimous decision or maybe even force a late stoppage around the tenth round.

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