Super featherweight contender Kevin Mitchell (26-0, 19 KOs) was forced to dig deep in rallying after being hurt in the sixth to eventually come back and stop Carl Johanneson (27-4, 19 KOs) in the 9th round to win the BBBofC British super featherweight title on Saturday night at the O2 Arena (Millenium Dome), in Greenwich, London. Mitchell, 23, took tremendous shots all fight long, particularly from rounds six though eight, in which Johanneson unloaded with devastating left hooks and straight right hands. Johanneson appeared to be on his way to winning the fight though eight rounds, but in the ninth he suddenly slowed way down and began to look very tired.
Mitchell took advantage of the lull, and hit Johanneson with a number of good jabs to start off the round. A short time into the round, Mitchell landed a perfect left hook to the head, dropping Johanneson to the canvas. After getting up, Johanneson was met with a series of mostly left hooks from Mitchell, hurting Johanneson further and causing the referee Ian John-Lewis to move in and halt the fight at 2:29 of the 9th round.
In rounds one though four, Mitchell was the much busier fight as he landed effectively with body shots and hooks to the head. He kept constantly busy with punches, for which Johanneson couldn’t keep up. During these rounds, Mitchell outlanded Johanneson by a wide margin. However, every so often Johanneson would land a huge bomb of a right hand or left hook that would get Mitchell’s attention and woo the crowd at the same time. The fourth round was very close due to the huge shots that Johanneson was beginning to land more and more. By the end of the round, Mitchell had significant swelling underneath his right eye.
In the fifth and sixth, the action was back and forth with both fighters landing good shots. However, Mitchell appeared to be tiring out, his punches having very little on them in contrast to Johanneson’s huge shots with either hand. In the sixth round, Johanneson landed a right hand to the side of Mitchell’s head that dropped to the canvas. However, the referee missed the knockout down and called it a slip. It was a bad call by the referee and lucky for Johanneson it didn’t effect the outcome of the fight.
Johanneson would continue to hurt Mitchell with big shots in rounds seven and right. To try to avoid some of these shots, Mitchell began using a lot of side to side movement in the 8th round. It didn’t help much because as soon as he would stop moving, Johanneson would clock him with right hands.
In the 9th round, Johanneson suddenly looked exhausted. Mitchell stayed away on the outside, throwing frequent jabs that seemed to really bother Johanneson a great deal. Finally, Mitchell connected with a left hook that dropped a tired Johanneson to the canvas. He wearily rose to his feet and the action resumed with Mitchell attacking him fiercely with combinations as Johanneson backed to the ropes and attempted to cover up. One big left hook from Mitchell staggered Johanneson, at which time the referee Ian John-Lewis stopped the bout with Johanneson still on his feet.