By Ian S Palmer
Jorge Linares of Venezuela will be taking on Britain’s Kevin Mitchell at the O2 Arena in London, England on Saturday, May 30th. The 12-round bout will be for Linares’ WBC Lightweight Championship and will be shown live in the UK on Sky Box Office on the undercard of the Frankie Gavin vs Kell Brook title bout. Linares won his third crown back in December and this will be his first defence of it.
Linares said he knows this won’t be an easy fight since it’s taking place in Mitchell’s backyard. Meanwhile, Mitchell is planning on dethroning the champion and hanging onto the belt for quite some time. Mitchell is strong and aggressive, but Linares’ prefers his opponents to fight that way. The champion possesses a lot of experience, skill and speed and will give Mitchell all he can handle. It has the potential to be a fan-friendly contest between the two 135 lb boxers.
The 29-year-old Linares will be entering the showdown with a record of 38-3 along with 25 Kos and he’s a former featherweight and super featherweight world champion. He won his latest belt back on December 30 when he stopped Javier Prieto in the fourth round. That bout took place in Tokyo, Japan, which is where Linares now calls his home base and it was for the vacant title. His three losses have come against Juan Salgado in 2009, Antonio DeMarco in 2011 and Sergio Thompson in 2012 and all three men stopped him. Linares’ biggest have been over Jesus Chavez, Oscar Larios, Nihito Arakawa and Rocky Juarez.
The 30-year-old Mitchell of Dagenham, England has a mark of 39-2 along with 29 Kos and turned pro back in 2003 after a fine amateur career. He’s one of the top ranked lightweights in Europe, but when he stepped into the ring against Grade A opponents and world champions Ricky Burns in 2012 and Michael Katsidis in 2010 he was stopped. He enters this contest with six straight wins under his belt and five of them coming by knockout. He’s the current WBC Silver Lightweight Champion after an eighth-round stoppage over Daniel Estrada back in January.
Linares stands 5-feet-8-inches tall with a 69-inch reach and has fought 230 rounds since turning pro 12 years ago in 2002 and carries a 61 per cent knockout ratio around with him. Mitchell has gone 213 rounds and has a KO ratio of 70.7 per cent. He stands 5-foot-8 and owns a 68-inch reach. Both of these men have good power, but with all five combined losses coming by knockouts their chins are questionable.
Prediction
Fans are probably expecting some fireworks in this bout because of the styles of the boxers and their relatively weak chins. There could be some knockdowns and it might be a case of whoever lands the biggest punch first wins. This makes it hard to predict, but since Linares has more experience against tougher opponents and is a bit younger I’ll be taking him to retain the title by stoppage.
