Mitchell's Redemption Day

With the undercard from Liverpool on Saturday night having proved disappointing, the pressure was on Kevin Mitchell & John Murray to salvage the evening. Fortunately the pair were up to the challenge, surpassing already high expectations to produce a mini classic over 8 brutal rounds, with Mitchell claiming a stunning victory to revive his career.

The Londoner started brightly, his movement keeping Murray at distance as he picked him off, with the uppercut particularly potent as it frequently pierced his opponents leaky guard. As usual Murray's head movement was non existent as he stalked his prey which was to be crucial later on, but at this stage nothing that landed seemed to trouble the Mancunian.

By the third round Murray had closed the distance & dragged Mitchell into his kind of fight as he pressurised him against the ropes, using his physical strength as they wrestled on the inside. Although Mitchell still landed blows, they appeared to have no impact as Murray steadily walked through them to answer with his own shots. As the fight entered the sixth round it appeared to be a typical Murray fight; struggling to catch a slicker opponent early on but gradually grinding him down to dominate the fight, with the only danger being the increasing swelling around his eyes. However Mitchell was to prove a cut above the previous opposition & in the following round seemed to find another gear; he was able to create space for his punches & for the first time they were having an obvious effect as Murray slowed & became laboured in his work, unable to smother the other mans work. On the bell a left uppercut & left hook combination rocked the unbeaten fighter and for the first time in his pro career he looked in trouble

Murray bravely came out for the 8th round, with his right eye almost closed completely but clearly hadn't recovered & Mitchell, a strong finisher, went for the finish with a vicious left hook sending Murray down to the canvas for the first time. There was probably a case for the fight being stopped then but referee Richie Davies gave Murray one last chance; when he was unable to answer the following onslaught he quickly stepped in to end the battle.

With such a stunning victory Mitchell has revitalised a career that appeared in danger of fizzling out & he proved a lot of people wrong (myself included...) and now looks back on track for a world title shot. I was amazed that he appeared so sharp after 14 months out & that there were no signs his confidence had been damaged by the ill fated Katsidis beating. While both fighters are promoted by Frank Warren, I'd got the impression that Mitchell was deemed to have blown his chances of the big time & was instead being served up as a victim to Murray, the new signing & potential superstar; defeat here would have relegated Mitchell from main event status, everything was resting on this fight, so to have come through as he has with a sensational performance is a credit to the fighter.

Whether Mitchell is able to capatilise on this win is another matter; he was hurt several times during the early rounds & Murray is not a puncher which suggests his punch resistance is waning; a dangerous situation were he to face hard hitting WBA champion Brandon Rios, who the Mitchell camp called out after the fight. It's an unfortunate combination of loving to get involved in a tear up whilst carrying a weak chin, Mitchell needs to work on not getting drawn into wars & instead concentrate on using his superior boxing ability to stay out of trouble. Still, that's all in the future, a future few expected him to have before the fight & he deserves all the plaudits that are coming his way

As for Murray, he's young enough to come again, but unless there are major changes in his technique (moving his head would be a good start!) he is never going to move beyond decent domestic level; his flaws were always going to be exposed at some point by higher quality fighters. It'll be interesting to see how he responds to his first defeat as it will end his belief that he can just walk through anything an opponent throws at him. Hopefully he can deal with it positively, learn from his mistakes & look to adapt his style. If he needs an example of how to pull yourself back from the brink & silence critics, he could do worse than look to his conqueror

It was refreshing to a fight conducted without the usual trash talking or needle; both were intense in the build up but refused to say anything negative about the other & this mutual respect continued after the fight. In the ring nothing was held back though & they deserve a huge amount of credit for the fight of the year candidate they produced

Liverpool boxing preview (part 3)

Final part of the preview of tomorrow's show, which will focus on the light heavyweight clash between Tony "Bomber" Bellew & Ovill "the Upsetter" McKenzie as well as Frankie Gavin's meeting with Curtis Woodhouse

The Bellew-McKenzie fight is for the vacant British title & the former's Commonwealth belt and is a rematch following their thrilling war last December. Bellew went into that contest defending an unbeaten record as well as his Commonwealth crown and was a clear favourite, but looked in desperate trouble after he was down twice in the opening couple of rounds, with the second knockdown particularly heavy. However the Liverpool man survived the crisis, fighting back & by the 8th round managed to force a stoppage. The McKenzie camp protested about being stopped as their man was still on his feet, but he'd been taking some thunderous shots & the intervention was justified. There has been needle going into the fight after McKenzie made ill judged & frankly moronic comments suggesting Bellew must have been on drugs to have survived the second knockdown. Unsuprisingly this lead to heated responses from the 'Bomber';


"Does he not remember that we were both tested before the fight?"
"He is a small minded clown and he's bringing our sport down with such stupid accusations,"
"I'm going to come out swinging and hit McKenzie so hard he'll be the one who is high afterwards!"


The accusations are unpleasant but I don't think McKenzie actually believes them, it is far more likely a strategy to antagonise Bellew & goad him into rushing into a war from the opening bell. The 'Upsetter' is better than his 18-10 record suggests & performs at his finest in the role of underdog, but his best chance of victory must be an early finish with the pair of them swinging away & an enraged Bellew leaving himself open. McKenzie was a surprise winner of the Prizefighter tournament up at Cruiserweight last year, is a fast starter & heavy handed but he has tended to struggle over longer fights.


McKenzie's tactic could work as the entertaining Bellew does come across as hot headed at times (see the press conference for the aborted fight with Nathan Cleverley for evidence) & it'll be interesting to see if he can resist the urge to trade bombs. It was a narrow escape last time & he needs a dominant win to keep him on track for an eventual meeting with bitter rival Cleverley. As an aside, I'm glad the fight between them didn't materialise back in May; a weeks notice is nowhere near enough to prepare for such a big fight & to be honest Bellew isn't anywhere near that level yet. It has set up an entertaining rivalry & hopefully Bellew can get a bit more experience under his belt first


I admit to a degree of bias as I'm a fan of Bellew but I don't think he'll make the same mistakes as last time; he should be more wary of McKenzie's early threat & look to take over for a stoppage by round seven.


  

Completing the preview is the welterweight meeting of Frankie Gavin and ex footballer Curtis Woodhouse. There have been a few words in the build up to this too as Woodhouse has been calling Gavin out for over a year, but there is far less doubt about the outcome.


Gavin is the only British fighter to ever have taken gold at the amateur World Championships, which he accomplished in 2007 & was a huge favourite going into the following Olympics; unfortunatley he was unable to make the weight & returned home without competing. Now competing up at welterweight since turning pro, Gavin looks to have the skill & ability to take him all the way in the sport. His movement around the ring & variation in work is excellent for someone at such an early stage of his career and with the talent that he possesses, anything less than a world title has to be considered a failure. The only concerns are that he has already shown a propensity to cut easily & isn't the biggest puncher. Motivation could be an issue too as he was extremely flat last time out against Young Mutley & he may struggle to push himself against opponents of a lower level (having said that, and with all the disappointment in his last display, he still won every single round against a former British champion)


Gavin is a big Birmingham City fan & on Saturday will face someone who was once transferred to his beloved team for £1 million. Woodhouse, who also played for Sheffield United amongst others, decided to become a pro boxer in 2006 after no previous experience and has put together a decent 15-2 record. It'd be hard to knock someone who turned his back on a lucrative & far less painful occupation in order to pursue boxing purely out of love for the sport and I have a lot of respect for him. 


Woodhouse is a decent boxer at domestic level & is clearly going in believing he can win but I'd expect Gavin's class will see him come through.  

Liverpool boxing preview (part 2)

While the Liverpool bill is nominally headlined by the Burns-Cook world title fight, most of the attention is on the lightweight clash between John Murray and Kevin Mitchell. It's a well matched meeting between two talented & popular young fighters, both former British & Commonwealth champions, with the winner likely to be pushed towards a world title opportunity

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

Liverpool boxing preview (part 1)

The big boxing bill this weekend is at the Liverpool Echo arena with an excellent card headlined by Ricky Burns defending his WBO Super Featherweight title against former champion Nicky Cook. There was already strong support with local fighter Tony Bellew's rematch against Ovill McKenzie and former amateur star Frankie Gavin taking on ex footballer Curtis Woodhouse, and this was strengthened when one of the potentially most exciting domestic fights of the year between John Murray & Kevin Mitchell was added (due to a virus Mitchell had picked up it was moved back form the previous weekend)

If everything goes ahead as scheduled this should turn out to be the best domestic card all season & there really should have been greater media coverage. Although I suppose many of our newspapers have other issues at present...

Will start off with the world title fight which sees Burns, from Coatbridge, Scotland, making the third defense of his title, won dramatically last September from Roman Martinez. I thought that fight was one of the highlights of the year; Burns went in as a huge underdog with many (myself included) not giving him a prayer against the hard hitting champion yet he survived a heavy knock down in the opening round to outbox Martinez & despite a few wobbly moments, ended a convincing winner. I'd not been that impressed previously by Burns; he'd  rebounded after a couple of early career defeats, admittedly against decent opponents, but looked to lack the power to rise above domestic level. However he seems to have gained real belief from his title victory & impressed in his first two defenses

Cook appears lucky to have got this opportunity having only fought once, against a journeyman, since losing the title to Martinez back in March 2009 in his first defense. An earlier world title bid had ended in failure but he took his second chance when scraping past Alex Arthur on a disputed points verdict; it's worth noting that Arthur was one of the two people to have beaten Burns but he was struggling with the weight & seemed past his best by the time he faced Cook. Against Martinez, Cook started strongly but neglected his defense when he thought the Puerto Rican was in trouble & paid for it with two heavy knockdowns in the 4th round to end his brief reign as champion.

A lot of the interviews in the build up have concerned Cook's plans for buying a bar in Tenerife after he retires which suggest a possible lack of focus & with Burns growing into his role as champion I'd expect him to retain the title. He should be capable of using his reach & height advantage to keep the shorter man at range and pick him off for a clear points victory. Cook does have the punch power to hurt Burns though & it's been a while since Burns fought away from his passionate Scottish fan base so it is a fight well worth watching

Still think Burnt or Cooked is one of the daftest names for a card though