Prediction and Preview: Briedis Prescott V Kevin Mitchell

On the undercard of the Amir Khan v Dmitriy Salita is Kevin Mitchell v Breidis Prescott in what could be a show stealing contest, as a limited but powerful puncher meets head on with a brawler who loves a tear up. The key support event it would seem, may possess more intrigue than the main event. These two do come to fight and and it'll be the first major step up in class for Mitchell who will also be stepping up from Super Featherweight to facing a big Lightweight (where he has fought a few times previously though not against any notable opponents). For Prescott it'll be his second fight in the UK after sparking Amir Khan in the first minute of their Sky Box Office show in 2008. So lets look at the fighters

Prescott is a 26 year old Colombian with a record of 21-1 including 18 KO's, though this will only be his third fight since beating Khan in September of last year knocking down the Olympic silver medallist twice en route to a destructive victory that he has since failed to build from. A DQ win in his following fight should have helped set him up for the big time until he was upset by Miguel Vazquez despite scoring an early knock down. This is his first fight since the Vazquez loss, as he looks to try and prove he isn't boxing's version of a one hit wonder. Stood at 5 foot 11 he's a giant for a Lightweight and is likely to have the reach advantage over Mitchell as well as power advantage. However of his first 19 fights very few are worth noting anything about, except for Richard Abril perhaps who lost a close split decision to Prescott in his fight prior to Khan. What it seems to come down to is that Prescott was knocking over tomato cans on a regular basis as his actual skill set is rather limited even though he does possess a monster punch.

Mitchell is a 25 year old from Britain who has amassed a record of 29-0 with 22 KO's, though most of his fights happened at Super Featherweight where he was the British and Commonwealth champion. Though no world names are on his record, the most well known would likely be Carl Johanneson who he beat in March of 2008by 9^th round stoppage. For much of his career he has been living in the shadows of Amir Khan and may see this as his chance to outshine his his country man at last by doing what he couldn't and beating Prescott. Though he is often a bit too easy to hit as he takes on the style of an out and out brawler happy to take one to land one himself, a style that may see Prescott landing a bomb on him early doors. A talented boxer when he decides to box he has often been found wanting a fight rather than a boxing contest, and despite the high levels of excitement the step up in quality and power of his opponent may make him revert to the boxer he started his career as.

So how will the fight go?

Well there is two view points here, either Mitchell charges in looking for a war or Mitchell uses his boxing skills for 12 rounds. If he tries to have a war with Prescott (who holds a 3 inch height advantage) he had better hope he has a decent chin or he's going to get bombed out in the first 5 rounds by the monstrous Colombian. If he uses his boxing skills, stays away from the Colombian and uses his impressive speed (with both hands and feet) he should be able to cruise to a relatively wide points decision over the 12 rounds.

The problem is, has he got the mentality to stay away from a tear up for 36 minutes? Can he stick to a game plan like David Haye managed against Nikolai Valuev? Or will he fall back into his normal routine of trying to be a modern day Erik Morales and neglect his boxing in favour of a fight?

This fight has much more intrigue for me personally than Khans first title defence which says more about the WBA rankings than anything else, hopefully the winner will be next in line (behind Marcos Maidana) for a fight with the WBA's Light Welterweight champion sometime in late 2010, though with this being at Lightweight it's unlikely to set the fight up with the WBA title at Light Welterweight but public opinion may push for it.