The Battle of Britain is upon us on tonight as Ricky Burns defends his WBO lightweight title against friend and fellow Brit Kevin Mitchell (10pm, Live on BoxNation).
Both men will look to put there friendship aside for the evening as Mitchell looks to make amends for his Upton park horror show against Micheal Katsidis when he was demolished inside 3 rounds and admitted himself it wasn’t his finest night.
Meanwhile the Burns story has been a heartwarming one. It shows that even if you aren’t the most talented boxer you can still go on and achieve big things and he is now a two weight champion who has proved me me wrong.
He is now entering his sixth world title fight and maintains a decent work ethic in the ring using his good skill set. He does lack power, but apart from that he is a decent all round fighter.
I expect this fight to be entertaining and enthralling from start to finish. Mitchell will look to get close using his good lateral movement to land snappy bombs and hurt Burns in a bid to break him down early, while Ricky Burns will be trying to use his high and reach advantage and pile up the points with his Jab.
I think this could well be Mitchell’s moment after messing up his last chance against Katsidis.
He can consider himself lucky that promoter Frank Warren as got him this chance, and I expect him to put in a dominating performance and take it to prove himself Britain’s most dominant Lightweight – perhaps even by stopping Burns late on
Daily Sport recommended bets:
2.5 pts Mitchell to beat Burns – 6/4 bet365 (Draw/No Bet)
1pt Mitchell to win by KO/TKO or DQ – 5/1 bet365
0.5 pts Mitchell to win in rounds 6-12 – 9/1 Ladbrokes