by James Slater at Ringside – 25-year-old Kevin Mitchell came of age last night in Newcastle. Boxing on the sold out Amir Khan-Dmitriy Salita bill at The Metro Radio Arena, the unbeaten former super-featherweight champion of both Britain and the Commonwealth made his debut at 135-pounds. And what a debut it was, too!
Meeting “KhanConqeror” Bredis Prescott of Colombia – the man who destroyed Khan in 54-seconds, of course – “Mighty” Mitchell, simply put, boxed the 26-year-old danger man’s ears off. Potentially lethal at all times, with both hands, Prescott forced Mitchell to adopt different tactics than those he is known for. Instead of having a tear-up, as he has so many times in the past, Mitchell, quite astonishingly, boxed like a near defensive master at times. Winning a wide (too wide in my opinion) UD on the cards of the three judges (all three of whom were, somewhat unfairly, British), Mitchell won by scores of 117-111, 119-110 and 118-111. I myself had Mitchell winning by four rounds..
Unloading bombs right from the first bell, Prescott, 21-1(18) coming in, was made to miss wildly at times, while he got through with the odd shot at others. Showing a number of feints, Mitchell, clearly wary of Prescott’s right hand, boxed patiently, impressively and beautifully at times. Showing a strange habit of dropping both hands so as to push the top of his trunks down throughout the fight, Prescott was the man coming forward, but his aggression was mostly ineffective.
Sure, the power-puncher got through at times, landing some hard body shots in the 12-rounder, but mostly it was the fleet-footed 25-year-old who was impressing the judges. There was some bad blood in the bout, and referee Dave Parris had to warn both men to clean things up more than once. Prescott was soon showing signs of frustration, unable as he was to cleanly nail the faster, sharper man.
There were no knockdowns in the fight, but the drama was such that you could not take your eyes off the ring – everyone knew a bomb, from either side, coud end this at any given time! There were wild exchanges in a number of rounds, and the punches were thrown with speed and venom on both sides. By the 3rd round, Mitchell, appearing to be enjoying himself, began to taunt Prescott – dropping his hands and gesturing to Prescott to hit his chin. Stalking throughout and trying his best to get Mitchell out of there, the visiting fighter was unable to do so.
Mitchell’s left jab was impressive, fast, sharp and jarring as it landed. Prescott, never much of a jabber in the contest, used his left hand only infrequently in that department. In the 5th, Prescott suffered a cut above his left eye. It was hard to see without the benefit of replay whether or not the damage was caused by a butt. The cut was nasty enough, but Prescott’s corner did a good job on it, seeing to it that it never realy became a factor.
Neither man ran out of gas, although the pace did slow in some of the later rounds. Overall, it was a thrilling little battle to watch, albeit one the three officials saw as one-sided. The two men, quite surprisingly considering the bad blood they’d show towards each other earlier, hugged as they touched gloves for the final round. Prescott gave it one more go at trying to tear his opponent’s head off, but he was met with return fire in the final three minutes.
And that was the story of the fight, really – Prescott was the man coming forward, but Mitchell was the faster man, the better boxer and a fighter who was more than willing to throw his own bombs when neccessary – winning the majortity of the rounds.
The vocal crowd, who booed Prescott at every possible opportunity, cheered wildly as the scores were made official. Scores that made Mitchell, now 30-0(22), the number-one contender for the WBO lightweight crown.
Can Prescott bounce back from his second defeat? It will be interesting to see. I’m sure the Colombian would still relish the thought of a second fight with Amir Khan!