Career best peformance sets up Linares showdown
Sunday 1 February 2015 07:21, UK
Kevin Mitchell is in line for a world title shot after out-classing Daniel Estrada with a punch-perfect performance at the O2 Arena.
It was the best I've ever fought.
The East Londoner dominated from start to finish and stopped the experienced Mexican after eight one-sided rounds.
Mitchell put Estrada down in the third and produced a top-class display that should earn him a crack at WBO champion Jorge Linares.
More importantly, he turned in arguably the best performance of a career that has already taken him to the very top, only to fail when he lost his world title challenge to Ricky Burns.
This time though the 30-year-old looked like a man on a mission and from the very first encounter he took control, the left leading the way not just with the jab but with clinical hooks and uppercuts.
Mitchell barely wasted a punch in the opening round and although Estrada, known for his bravery, kept coming forward to start with, the third round was the beginning of his end.
A peach of a short, sharp left hook put Estrada on the floor and although he got up on nine, Mitchell went for the finish with a fearsome left-right-left combination, ending with a powerful straight uppercut that seemed to wobble him again.
It left Estrada not only bruised but bloodied from his nose and although he did come back into it in the next round, the man who knew he was fighting to keep his career going moved up another gear.
The sixth and seventh rounds saw Mitchell's left land time and time again. He barely used the right and several times Estrada looked as if he would go down again, quality and quantiy landing at will.
But the eighth turned out to be the end and once Mitchell trapped his man in a neutral corner and unleashed a six-punch combination that went totally unanswered, referee Ian John-Lewis closed in.
Mitchell was not quite done, thumping home the umpteenth uppercut of the night, forcing the referee to call a halt to an outstanding display and save Estrada from any more damage.
