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 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