Kevin Mitchell scored a ninth-round stoppage win over Carl Johanneson to retain his Commonwealth super-featherweight title.
Ninth-round knockout stuns Johannesson
Kevin Mitchell scored a ninth-round stoppage win over Carl Johanneson to win the British title and retain his Commonwealth super-featherweight crown in London.
Mitchell landed the decisive blow with a crisp left-hand which sent Johanneson to the canvas, and eventually resulted in referee Ian John-Lewis stopping the contest.
Mitchell flew out of the traps from round one, but Johanneson battled back to land a number of clean shots as the scorecards remained even until the east-Londoner took command.
It was easily the most significant win of Mitchell's 26-fight professional career, but there were worrying times for the Dagenham fighter who was caught with a number of blows.
Clean shots
The most telling came in the sixth round as Mitchell briefly hit the canvas after a sharp right-hand caught the 23-year-old off guard.
He was taking far too many clean shots but was holding up admirably and came back strongly in the ninth to send Johanneson to the canvas.
Sensing a sudden stoppage victory, Mitchell poured in the punches prompting a timely intervention from the referee as Johanneson offered little protest.
"You never know you've got it until you've been hurt and come back from it, and that's what I did tonight," said a jubilant Mitchell. "I learned more from that fight than I did in my last five or six put together.
"I learned to dig deep, I learned I've got a lot of heart and I learned that I can't afford to switch off. You haven't seen the best of me, nowhere near it. There is loads more to come."
