Manchester's Murray goes into the fight as the betting favourite & with the unblemished record. Like his opponent he turned pro in 2003 at 18, has had two spells as British Lightweight champion and he recently vacated the European title in order for this match to be made (previous EBU rules wouldn't have allowed Mitchell to fight for the belt as he is coming off a defeat). Murray first won the British title from Lee Meager back in 2008 but suffered from extended periods between fights & became frustrated at having not been moved to a higher level sooner; earlier this year he switched promoters to Frank Warren in an attempt to rectify this problem. The first fight for his new promoter was intended as a showcase but it instead exposed a number of weaknesses as he struggled on the way to a points win over awkward Spaniard Karim El Ouazghari, where at times he appeared crude & one dimensional. Murray doesn't carry great one punch knock out power but he is very strong at the weight & tends to wear opponents down with his relentless attacks, particularly to the body; elusive & tricky boxers have caused him problems in the past but up to this point he has always found a way to win
Fourteen months ago it's likely that Romford's Mitchell would have started as clear favourite in this match up. A former British Super Featherweight champion, he had moved up a weight division & was coming off a career best display where he had given Amir Khan conqueror Breidis Prescott a boxing lesson. The injury problems that had forced a break from the sport seemed behind him & he looked on the verge of world honours. A marquee event was staged at West Ham's football stadium with Mitchell headlining against Aussie warrior Michael Katsidis; the plan was for the popular fighter to receive more exposure, hopefully filling the gap in the market left by Ricky Hatton's departure & move onto a full world title challenge in the Autumn. Unfortunately this wasn't made clear to Katsidis who cheerfully went out & destroyed Mitchell in 3 rounds; from the beginning Mitchell looked nervous & unable to deal with the Aussie's power. After the event the Mitchell camp blamed it on personal issues that had affected the build up, but to be brutally honest he looked out of his depth.
The Katsidis clash was in May 2010 & Mitchell hasn't fought since; stories about blowing £100k on alcohol, problems with the police & being out of shape doesn't raise high hopes for his chances. However at his best Mitchell can look a very decent boxer; he's fast, can box from range (as demonstrated so well against Prescott where the Colombian couldn't lay a glove on him) & is a powerful puncher. There are obviously doubts about his chin after his defeat & back in 2008 he was close to being stopped by Carl Johanneson before prevailing in an excellent scrap.
Personally I think Murray will get found out at world class level; hope to be proved wrong, as I enjoy watching him but he's just too easy to hit & only capable of fighting one way, elite fighters will expose these flaws. A fight against Katsidis would make sense as he is a brawler in the Murray mould & it'd give us a better indication of his level. First he needs to get past Mitchell & it's a harder fight to predict than it should be; Murray is full of confidence & should be too powerful for an opponent coming off a heavy defeat, who hasn't fought for over a year & has had problems out of the ring. And yet if Mitchell has got in shape, can stay disciplined & use his superior boxing skills to keep the fight at distance....
It's probably too big an if though so I'm tentatively going for a late Murray stoppage
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