Undefeated Heavyweight Contender Seth Mitchell to Fight Chazz Witherspoon Next

On Monday, Feb. 27, Golden Boy Promotions announced that a heavyweight clash between Seth Mitchell, 24(18)-0-1, and Chazz Witherspoon, 30(22)-2(1), would be added to the HBO broadcast portion of the April 28 Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson rematch in Atlantic City.

Mitchell is regarded by many boxing fans and writers as America's best hope for the future within the heavyweight division.

The former All-American linebacker for Michigan State has shown steady and consistent development throughout his undefeated career and now has a highly polished, technically sound offensive game. 

Mitchell demonstrated that he had arrived during his HBO debut against Timur Imbragimov, 30(16)-4(1), last December, when he pounded out a second-round TKO against an experienced opponent who was supposed to represent a significant step up in competition.

Imbragimov has never been stopped previously and to give a general idea of how he has stacked up against world-class competition, his last fight before Mitchell was a split-decision loss to Jean-Marc Mormeck, the opponent for Wladimir Klitschko this weekend.  

Seth Mitchell is no longer a football player who took up boxing. He is now a boxer who used to play football.

Witherspoon will again be presented as a step up in competition for Mitchell. His only two career losses came against Chris Arreola and Tony Thompson, both world-title challengers.

But neither of Witherspoon's losses were close. Arreola was lighting him up in the third round and knocked him nearly out cold at the bell. Witherspoon was disqualified when his cornermen entered the ring before the referee had signaled the end of the round, but he looked all done either way. 

Against Tony Thompson he was stopped in nine. If Mitchell is as good as some of us think/hope he is, Witherspoon could be the perfect opponent to make Mitchell once again look very good. 

Still, Witherspoon is a live heavyweight contender. He's got good size (6'4", about 230 pounds) and his counter-punching and movement should present Mitchell with some new problems to solve. 

This fight is an excellent opportunity for Witherspoon. An upset over the highly regarded Mitchell inserts Witherspoon's name into a lot of conversations. 

Witherspoon is a smart tactical fighter and a good last test for Mitchell before he takes another step up and fights a legitimate top-10 heavyweight.