Lightweight Kevin Mitchell (33-2, 24 KO’s) will be fighting this Saturday night against little known Sebastien Benito (10-6, 3 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout at the York Hall in Bethnal Green, London, UK.
Benito, from France, has lost his last two fights and five out of his last eight. Mitchell is playing it safe with an easy fight because he was demolished by WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns last year in getting stopped in the 4th round last September.
That outcome was kind of predictable because Mitchell hadn’t done much of anything since being stopped by Michael Katsidis in the 3rd round in 2010. Mitchell took a year off after the defeat to Katsidis and came back and beat domestic fighter John Murray by an 8th round TKO in July 2011, and then defeated Felix Lora by a 10 round decision last year in February.
Clearly, Mitchell had no business fighting for a world title after those two flimsy victories, and he badly need to show that he could beat a good contender like Sergio Thompson, Terrell Crawford or Omar Figueroa before being given a gift title shot.
Those fighters are considered to be the best contenders in the lightweight division, and for Mitchell get a title shot without facing one of those guys, it just seemed like Mitchell was being given a gift title shot.
Mitchell wants to fight Anthony Crolla or Gavin Rees right now. I’d rather see Mitchell fight someone a little bit better than them like Alejandro Sanabria. I think he’d be a good test for Mitchell right now. I know Sanabria was beaten recently by Crawford, but I think Sanabria would be a good test for Mitchell.
If Mitchell can’t beat Sanabria then he needs to think about retiring because there are better fighters in the lightweight division then him, and if Mitchell is destroyed by the hard hitting Sanabria then it’s probably a good idea for him to retire.
I can’t see Mitchell ever beating Burns, Adrien Broner, Richard Abril, Miguel Vazquez, Sergio Thompson or Omar Figueroa. But if Mitchell can’t even bat Sanabria, then it’s to pack it in or focus on just fighting in the domestic scene.