Kevin Mitchell entered this fight with a pro boxing record of 39-2-0 (29 knockouts) and he is ranked as the No.4 lightweight in the world (currently the #1 in this division is Mickey Bey). He suffered his last defeat in 2012 when he faced Ricky Burns for the Wbo Lw belt (=Burns vs Mitchell), since then he has won six consecutive fights beating Daniel Estrada in his last bout (=Mitchell vs Estrada).
His opponent, the former Wbc featherweight and super-Fw world champion Jorge Linares, has a record of 38-3-0 (25 knockouts) and he entered as the No.8 in the same weight class. He suffered two consecutive losses between 2011 and 2012, against Antonio DeMarco (=DeMarco vs Linares) and Sergio Thompson (=Linares vs Thompson), but since then he has collected seven victories winning the vacant Wbc Lw belt in his last fight, against Javier Prieto (=Linares vs Prieto). Mitchell vs Linares is valid for the WBC World lightweight title (Linares’ first defense); undercard of Kell Brook vs Frankie Gavin. Watch the video and rate this fight!
Date: 2015-05-30
Where: O2 Arena, London, United Kingdom
Division: lightweight (135 lbs, 61.2 kg)
Title: WBC World lightweight title
Mitchell’s previous fight: Kevin Mitchell vs Daniel Estrada
Linares’ previous fight: Jorge Linares vs Javier Prieto
Linares’ next fight: Jorge Linares vs Ivan Cano
Mitchell’s next fight: Kevin Mitchell vs Ismael Barroso
Video: (Free embeddable video hosted on Youtube and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights, to report it please visit this link where the video is hosted)
Official video
Really good fight.
Ending doesn’t tell the story. Without the cut I believe Mitchell would have won. Definite rematch worthy.
What a fight! The 5th round was amazing.
It was quite an upset until the stoppage!…
Best fight of the weekend: 4-stars.
Great effort from both but the chapion did what champions do…!
You mean … taking a knockdown, being dominated for the 3/4 of the fight, and then, after a dozen of headbutts have destroyed his opponents face to a point that he can barely see, go for the knockout ? ;)
Im guessing your a km fan lam 2 but in km’s last fight he dominated like if or not in this fight he ran out off gas in the 9th.
Head butts..? Come on they looked like crisp rights to me, anyway l’ll wager you in the rematch if your up for it?
Haha! I’m not a Kevin Mtchell’s fan at all, though I thought he fought really well until the 9th indeed. My point was that saying “champion did what champions do” is somewhat a false confimatory logic, like saying: “the winnner did what winners do, and that is to win”.
And about the headbutts, you’re right, I exagerated. The clash of heads was acccidental and Linares landed many powerful punches after that. That’s part of boxing.
Point taken, nice fight l’d like to see a rematch…
I hope Keven gets a belt, he’s going to struggle to get this guys though…
Very nice fight indeed and good knock downs in the 5th and 10th rounds. The referee was right stopping the fight. Anyhow, I fully believe that Linares was able to put Mitchell down for good in the following round since he was loosing sight from his left eye and fighting with not more conviction.