Mitchell Smith

Remember jupp doing a right job on him when they met after smith was extremely disrespectful in the build up. Smith was very highly ranked with the wbo at super feather but seemed to be casing a showdown with warrington at one stage with alot twitter comments between the 2.
Good to see his turned his life round out the ring and giving it a go. Be interesting to see what he does and if any big promoter's take a gamble on him.

 

This is is 2nd comeback iirc. Had one failed attempt a couple of years after the Jupp defeat.
He had a BN highlight reel KO on his debut agains't a local lad to me, James Ancliff. Then went on to win an English and an International belt
He was definitely a prospect and was routinely calling out josh warrington with a lot of beef building up between them.
Whilst been a good prospect/contender he started yo believe his own hype a bit too much and fell in love a bit too much with his own power imo which was the thing that came back to bite him.
He just tried too hard to ktfo of jupp and jupp boxes himself to a victory.
We didn't see him after that really.
Definitely he was a good up and coming fighter who had already won a couple of belts. And was in contention to push onto bigger things.
I saw an interview he did about a year ago talki g about his comeback. He seemed very settled witbi himself and yhat was nice to see.
Wish him well on his comeback.

 

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Good performance last night, 5th round KO, hope he rebuilds his career somewhat.

 

It’s probably too late now to do anything special, but we all love a comeback story, so I wish him well.

 

I hope he's grown up a bit since this, a right little scumbag in this clip.

 

Is this fight online anywhere?

 

I was there that night and instead of being backstage getting prepared, he was out in the crowd with his hand wraps on, laughing and joking with his mates. Which says a lot about his attitude and mindset, or at least how it was back then. So when he then went out and lost to the lad he had completely dismissed it was pretty funny. Talk about pride coming before a fall.

 

I remember being over the moon that Jupp shut him up after all the bollocks he spoke in the build up.

That said since then he clearly did fall into a dark place, ballooned up in weight etc so fair play to him for turning his life round.

 

Met Mitchell and his brother Jez who was a decent pro a few times when I was working around that area Harrow, always pleasant enough.

Mitchell was very hyped young British boxer of the year iirc? Good exciting fighter but a lot of wrong people surrounding him, more I was told than seen. Frank Warren was very much behind him expected big things even after the Jupp defeat but warning signs out of ring had been there.

Can't turn back the hands of time but he was a wasted talent, he will know that, good luck to him if he can get anything going again.

When this thread was bumped I expected to read he was having a go at BKFC.

 

I was never a big fan of Mitchell Smith the person, but there’s no denying he was a very talented and exciting fighter back in the day. A Senior ABA Champion at just 18, and an unbeaten pro with real flair — until arrogance, ego inflation, George Jupp, and complacency came along. Since then, he’s had a rough run: got sentenced after what was basically him defending himself in a fight, ballooned up to around 18 stone, and has drifted in the wilderness for the best part of a decade.

He’s the underdog here against Arnie, who’s a competent unbeaten pro and very tall for the weight — especially compared to Mitchell. If Smith wins, it’ll be an upset. I think he’ll need to stop this guy early; he’s not a full-time pro anymore, took this fight on short notice, and looks like he had to cut quite a bit to make weight, so maybe he’s got four or five good rounds in him to try and resurrect his career. Kind of reminds me of a lesser version of the Scott Harrison vs Liam Walsh fight.

If I do end up buying the PPV, it’ll be purely for nostalgia — to see if Mitchell can turn back the clock. Like him or not, he deserves his one shot on a big stage again.

 

Excellent post, actually sums up a lot of my thoughts about him.

Off this thread bump I text a friend about him, who reminded me also of he trained a lot inside his Dad's house converted room early days. Not a easy start in life his Mum wasn't around had addiction issues and added to living in an area where everyone knew each other and certainly a deprived area Harrow Wealdstone if anyone knows it I've no doubt he would of had a lot of jealousy towards him as well as friends that were always easy to find in pubs etc.

Boxing is time tested, being a talented fighter is one thing but if you can't avoid the temptations outside the ring it never ends well and for some it's the hardest part the choices you make simply by being unable to live the life of a pro, easier said than done I guess.

 

Yup, well said. I watched his debut back in the day at York Hall — I’m pretty sure it was on the Saunders undercard. Between Mitchell and Buglioni they sold the place out, because Saunders couldn’t have sold a tenner for a fiver back then. Even early on you could see he attracted a rowdy crowd — and the queues for the men’s cubicles were longer than the ones for the urinals.

I think the incident that led to his sentence started with him being provoked in a pub in his local area — he left, then went back and gave the guy a hiding. I believe Adam Booth tried working with him after the Jupp defeat, and there’s a video-style documentary on him filmed by Kugan back in the pre-IFL days where you could already sense where things were heading.

All of Mitchell’s problems, like you said, were outside the ring. He ended up becoming a product of the same chaos he’d grown up around and started to believe his own hype. I think Warren expected big things from him and invested a lot, which is probably why he’s only reluctantly given him this last-chance-saloon opportunity. Hopefully he can turn back the clock tonight — something like Herol Graham vs Chris Johnson.