For anyone who never saw Brian Mitchell at his peak...

Criminally overlooked fighter...I like the Brian Mitchells of this world, there is nothing that stands out about them but they put it all together so well..they are the kind of guys who work bloody hard outside of the ring to perfect their craft and come in 100% fit...I dont recall Mitchell ever coming in soft or having a lacklustre performance because of bad prep.

People look at these kind of fighters and say "so what?"..because they seem so conditioned to expect RJJ athleticism and speed or Tyonesque power from a great fighter...Mitchell didnt have those but that didnt make him any less effective or great.
He took his talent a long way...I wish he could have had the opportunities to take it further.

 

He ought to have played Mel Gibson's part in The Road Warrior. It certainly fit him. A man who earned the right to his title, and one who defended it properly. It's really quite unfair that he's so overlooked given his accomplishments, consistency, and skill-set.

 

For years I was at a loss to what Americans were talking about when they said Mel Gibson was in a movie called the Road Warrior...I thought it was some cult classic that was never released in Australia but everyone had seen it in the States.

Whats wrong with the title MAD MAX?

It sums it up so well...the titles character's name was Max and he was mad as a cut snake.

 

I'd been wanting to seen footage of Brian Mitchell for ages. He's one of the many forgotten champs from "inappropriate" countries, doomed never to attain stardom.

 

Great post! I was actually at the McDonnell fight all those years ago. Mitchell was a real technician and an excellent counterpuncher. Beat Jim and Lopez handily. Very underappreciated boxer.

 

Yep, the fight with Jimmy Mac was before the end of apartheid and Mitchell definitely suffered due to his country's politics. I actually was sitting next to some of his S African supporters at the fight and they were getting some stick from other people there.

 

Didn't Mitchell only lose a single fight his entire career, fairly early on?

He very well could have been undefeated. Off the top of my head I think he was 40 something and 1?

 

45-1-3, with one of those draws being questionable and two of them being avenged. His only loss was to a 15-6-2 Transvaal champion when he had only 6 fights; tragically, he killed that boxer in the rematch.

 

I too thought Mitchell deserved the decision in the first Lopez fight. Thanks for posting those vids, Mitchell is one of my favorite fighters....the McDonell fight is a great display of Brian's skillset, but in my opinion his greatest showcase was the Jackie Beard rematch, I have it somewhere. It was a little later than the McDonnell fight, but to me that was Brian's peak fight. He was amazing in that fight.

 

Yes, that was to a fighter called Jacob "Dancing shoes" Morake. Morake had a style that gave Mitchell quite a few problems, and they had three great fights.
Sadly, Morake died in their last fight, which almost caused Mitchell to hang them up.

My2Sense...thanks a ton for posting these videos. I haven't seen them in many years, and I'm definitely saving these to my PC. I wasn't even aware there were Mitchell videos available on Youtube.
I checked a few years back, but found nothing.

What always seperated Mitchell from the vast majority of South African fighters was his in-born confidence. He always had that steely look in his eyes, and never believed that he could lose.
A great character trait to have, especially considering the conditions he was forced to fight under.
He was good over the 12 round distance, but even better over 15 rounds. He generally started slowly, and accelerated the pace in the latter rounds.

His biggest problem was that later in his career, he suffered a lot from cuts.

 

What kind of style did Morake have?

 

He was a smooth, fluid boxer, and if I'm not mistaken, a southpaw at that.
Morake wasn't much of a puncher, but he had enough pop to sting and cut you. He loved to showboat and was notorious for letting a guy back into the fight because of excessive showboating.
The Ali shuffle was a favourite of his, hence the nickname "dancing shoes."
He and Mitchell had a great rivalry going, and in a bizarre twist of fate, Morake declared to friends before his fateful fight with Mitchell, that he'd rather die than lose the fight.

Mitchell didn't like fighting tall boxers with great movement. I went to watch him fight a journeyman called Felipe Oroszco at Sun City, and Mitchell squeaked home on a split decision.
Okay, Mitchell was off and it was a non-title fight, but Oroszco's style gave him problems.
He never had problems with strong pressure fighters, but occasionally he'd meet a slippery boxer who would make him look ordinary.

Incidently, Mitchell was one of the few white guys to ply his trade in our black townships back then, something that served him well when he found himself on the road, defending his title in sometimes hostile environments.
He eventually became very popular with the black crowds, who called him a 'black boxer in a white skin.'