Boxing: Mitchell debut is the top draw
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Your support makes all the difference.In theory the two British title fights involving four decent fighters, each with a tale to tell, are the main attraction but the reality of tonight's boxing at the Goresbrook Leisure Centre, Dagenham, is that the local idol, Kevin Mitchell, is the main interest.
Mitchell is just 18 and tonight will be his first professional fight in a career that could see him, in a very short time, become the top young attraction in London. Earlier this year, Mitchell won the English Amateur Boxing Association featherweight title and it was a surprise when he turned his back on the amateur sport and opted for the inevitable and turned professional.
Mitchell has so far been at the centre of attention during two high profile press conferences and before that he was the subject of a BBC film and in many ways his job tonight inside the ropes against Belfast's reliable Steve Quinn will be a lot easier.
Either side of Mitchell's debut will be the nominal main events and both of the British title fights are intriguing. Perhaps the better of the two will be between Birmingham's Jimmy Vincent, who once went more than three years and 10 fights without a win, and Manchester's David Barnes for the vacant welterweight title.
Barnes, 22, is unbeaten in 12 fights and it would have been more had he not finally been apprehended by military police for going Awol and made to serve a short spell in the stockade before resuming his career. Vincent is 34 and has lost 16 of his 39 fights.
In the lightweight title fight, Bradford's Bobby Vanzie will at 29 try to salvage a career that once promised so much but has faded into anonymity during the last two years. Vanzie defends against Luton's unbeaten Graham Earl in a fight that on paper at least looks one-sided in favour of the champion.
"Even when I was taking fights at two days' notice and boxing at about two stone over the welterweight limit I never considered myself a loser. I knew one day hard work would get me a chance," said Vincent, whose first fight as a professional was in 1987 when Barnes was just seven years old.
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