Essex fighter has schemes on British World title fight with two-weight Champ
By Adam Appleton
Kevin Mitchell is pursuing a summer fight with WBO lightweight champion, Ricky Burns, Appleton’s Edition can exclusively reveal.
The Dagenham Destroyer was at York Hall, Bethnal Green last night attending a Five Live radio special, “Future of Boxing”, hosted by Mark Chapman, Steve Bunce and Mike Costello.
He was joined there by the likes of Frank Warren, Eddie Hearn, Darren Barker, Enzo Calzaghe, Spencer Oliver, Colin Hart as well as representatives of the Amateur Boxing Association (ABA), British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) and BBC and ITV officials.
We asked Mitchell whether he was eyeing up a fight with the Scottish World champion as he posed for a photograph.
He replied: “It’s a fight I’m very much looking at, probably for June or July, but there is still a lot of paperwork to get through first.”
Burns first has to negotiate Namibian, Paulus “The Hitman” Moses on the 10th March.
He was changed from interim to official WBO champion when Juan Manuel Marquez went up to light-welterweight. This will be his first defence.
Mitchell was devastatingly knocked out in 3 rounds by Australian Michael Katsidis, putting his hopes of superstardom on hold.
When he fought John Murray fourteen months later in a much-anticipated return, Mitchell triumphed in an exhilarating 8th round TKO.
After the fight, he told reporters he had suffered personally around the time he fought Katsidis.
Whether true or false, the same Katsidis was out-boxed by Ricky Burns in a unanimous 12-round decision in a title-eliminator.
However Mitchell has matured since his sole defeat in 33 fights, not only as a boxer, but as a man.
He is currently working in several inner-city schools, trying to encourage a re-introduction of boxing in school to infuse youths with the same discipline and goals that he had.
Oh, you Bute!
Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn also announced that his new charge Carl
Froch has agreed to take on the much-untested, but undefeated IBF super-middleweight champion Lucian Bute.
The Cobra will take on the 32 year old Canada-based Romanian in Nottingham on the 26th May.
Hearn was delighted that they had managed to get Bute to fight outside adopted home, saying: “I have to respect Lucian and his team for agreeing to enter the Lion's Den and face Carl in his hometown, but am fully confident that Carl can become a world champion again.”
Read more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/boxing/article-2108900/Carl-Froch-fight-Lucian-Bute-Nottingham-May-26.html#ixzz1nzs8v9zE
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