A Tale of Boxing Twins, The Mitchell Brothers
By Robert Brizel, Real Combat Media Correspondent
Born on August 25, 1969, Eric Mitchell and Aaron Mitchell are a pair of boxing twins who traveled different roads.
In a 20 year professional career which began in 1993, Florida middleweight Eric Mitchell has compiled a professional record of 23-20-1 with 11 knockouts. Still fighting at 43 years of age, Eric has lost six of his last seven pro bouts, getting stopped twice and disqualified once. The disqualification came in the eleventh round of a USBA / WBO NABO bout against Danny Perez, in which Mitchell was disqualified for excessive holding. In his most recent outing, an old but still somewhat inspired Mitchell incurred cracked two ribs when he got hit by a right hand thrown by Mexican Marcos Reyes, who stopped him in the fifth round.
Mitchell briefly held the NABA middleweight title, which he won in Atlantic City in 2001 with a twelfth round stoppage of Ross Thompson but never defended. Mitchell lost a ten rounder to Ricardo Mayorga at Madison Square Garden in 2004. He won the NBA version of the light middleweight title by stopping Fernando Hernandez in the eighth round of a Florida bout in 2006.
Mitchell’s most noteworthy win was a first round knockout of Alejandro Berrio in Philadelphia in 2003. Berrio went on to win the IBF Super Middleweight title with a third round stoppage of 29-0 Robert Stieglitz in Germany in 2007.
Mitchell still has gotten opportunities, but failed to capitalize on them. These include failed attempts at winning the WBC United States USNBC Middleweight title, the WBO Latino Light Middleweight title, and the WBO Asia Pacific Middleweight title. Mitchell was unbeaten against 19 opponents at one point in his career, including one draw, excepting the credible loss to Mayorga. At that point, Eric began losing money fights at a higher weight where his power was diminished.
Mitchell’s problem is not age or talent, it is fighting in the wrong weight class. Mitchell is a far more effective fighter at 154 pounds or less. Name fighters who stretch their careers into later age inevitably depart with good preparations, and take whatever bouts get thrown their way regardless of weight class for a payday.
Mitchell fits this description, but Eric would do much better at 154 pounds or less where his power would return to him, and he would be a much more effective fighter. Mitchell has no business fighting at 160 pounds, where six losses in seven bouts have defined Mitchell as a fighter taking paydays in the wrong weight class.
Mitchell’s twin brother, Florida middleweight Aaron Mitchell, fought between 1993 and 2008, with a professional record of 27-1-1. His only loss was a four round split decision to future WBC Light Middleweight champion Keith Mulling. Aaron smartly retired after winning the WBO NABO Middleweight title at age 39 in 2008.
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