Kevin Mitchell-Breidis Prescott eliminator for Khan undercard

Terence Dooley reports that a WBO lightweight title eliminator has been signed for the December 5 Khan-Salita undercard. England's Kevin Mitchell will meet Breidis Prescott in the bout.

So let's go ahead and get yours and my first thought out of the way: Yes, Prescott lost his last fight, and no, he does not deserve to be battling for a title shot by any stretch of the imagination. Since the first-round stoppage of Amir Khan, Prescott has gone back to being woefully unimpressive despite the fact that his right hand is always dangerous. In February, Prescott fought veteran Humberto Toledo. He was beating Toledo easily but failing to thrill in the process before Toledo bit him for a 10th round disqualification.

Then in July in his second ESPN2 bout of the year, Prescott knocked down the 22-year old Vazquez in the first round, but then Vazquez came back to pretty thoroughly outbox the favored Colombian slugger.

Vazquez (25-3, 12 KO) isn't a name, though, and his upset of Prescott didn't make waves the way Prescott's knockout of Khan did, so I guess we're supposed to sweep it under the rug and forget about it. It's gross favoritism shown by the sanctioning body.

Promoter Frank Warren, who put the fight together, believes it's "the right fight":

"This time I’ve had time to study Prescott," Warren said. "Kevin needs a challenge and is capable of beating Prescott.

"Before Prescott boxed Amir I hadn’t even seen a tape of him, but the trainer and the team were keen on him, so I went along with it. I think Amir could beat him if he prepared right for him."

Meanwhile, the deserving Vazquez has to sit back and hope something comes along. The only losses on his record are to Saul Alvarez (twice) and Timothy Bradley -- not bad, huh? During that fight, Sergio Mora sat in at ringside and said he'd sparred with Vazquez and the past, and knew how good he was. Vazquez used tricky timing and a varied offensive plan to neutralize and frustrate Prescott, and in the end earned a hard-fought win.

But again, he wasn't supposed to do that, so he's ignored. What a crock.

Mitchell (29-0, 22 KO) does deserve this sort of fight. The 25-year-old from Dagenham made an official move up to lightweight this year after campaigning for a while at 130 pounds. He's a heck of a good fighter, really, one of the more promising in the UK. Like anyone, he needs to fear Prescott's right hand, but the more you watch Prescott, the more you realize he's a lot like countryman Edison Miranda. He's a lot of fear wrapped up in one punch, easily worked around by anyone who can box.