''A childhood friend of mine, Ray Berry (Jouryman LHW) had been boxing a year and he asked me to come down to the gym. He and I messed around a little bit sparring, and he kinda got the best of me, and I just wound't stop until I got the best of him. Mitchell was 16. He went on to have a successful amature career although he lost in the 1996 Olympic trials. ''I had 116 amature fights'' said Mitchell. I won the national Golden Gloves in 1996 and I was runner up for the 96 Olympics. I lost to Rhoshi Wells. He wasn't really a Middleweight. He was a Junior Middle, byt wanted to duck David Reid- I think he was scared of him, so his father moved him up to Middleweight''. ''Actually we fought a tiebreaker. The computer score was 7-7, and they gave it to him because he was more active [in thorwing punchers] than I was''. ''I pretty muched controlled my whole [amature] circuit within surrounding states - Tennessee, Georgia, Nprth Florida and Mississippi. I really controlled this whole area and nobody really wanted to fight me'' ''The most fight's I got were through tournaments''
