Linares Beats Mitchell In Bloodbath War
It wasn’t meant to be for Kevin Mitchell tonight as WBC lightweight champion Jorge Linares TKO’d him in the 10th round, after a thrilling battle.
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What a war, that had everything at times. Linares showed why he was a three-weight world champion in the end, but Kevin Mitchell showed incredible bravery and if it were not for the horrendous cut he suffered, he was on route to winning the fight in my opinion.
Here’s my round by round report of how I thought it went down.
Round 1: Good start from Mitchell, very positive. On the front foot, nice left hands and use of distance. Linares landed his own big shots at the end of the round. Mitchell responds. Just gave Mitchell the edge (10-9 Mitchell).
Round 2: Tense start from Mitchell but landed some nice left hooks. Good work from Mitchell on the back foot, frustrated Linares at times. Linares left it late in the round to rattle off some fast combinations. Close round but the strong finish at the end just tipped it for Linares for me (10-9 Linares).
Round 3: Not much landed by either man but Mitchell had some nice success with the jab and made Linares miss at times (10-9 Mitchell).
Round 4: Good concentration from Mitchell, who visibly was looking to work Linares out. Both men suffered cuts possibly as a result of a clash of heads. Nice left hook to the body at the end of the round by Linares. Very even round, couldn’t split the two (10-10).
Round 5: Great start to the round by Mitchell, mixed up right and left hand combinations well. Mitchell dropped Linares with a big left hand! Terrific straight left set up by the right hand from the West Ham man. Linares fired back like a true champion – which prompted a furious exchange from the two. Big round for Kevin Mitchell overall (10-8 Mitchell).
Round 6: Mitchell really started to let some punches go and mixed his work up well with different angles, to the body and head, picking his moments well. Very clever work by the Londoner who used raiding tactics, in and out, really looked that part (10-9 Mitchell).
Round 7: Mitchell looked very cool and calculated early on, made Linares look slightly confused at times. The Englishman wasn’t wasting any punches and really looked like he had the measure of the Venezuelan, making him miss horribly at times (10-9 Mitchell).
Round 8: Linares stepped it up a bit and threw more shots, with Mitchell bleeding heavily from the nose. Mitchell still had that solid look about him however. I gave the round to Linares based on damage alone, Mitchell’s cut over his eye was quite bad by this point (10-9 Linares).
Round 9: Momentum had looked like it was tipping to Linares but Mitchell looked like he was boxing the more clever overall. Close round, but I gave the round to Mitchell (10-9 Mitchell).
Round 10: The pace had slightly slowed down from Mitchell at the start of the round, with Linares doing the better work. Then a big right hand goes in for Linares! Mitchell goes down, with the referee calling halt as Mitchell rose slowly, badly battered and bloodied. What a battle.
All in all, it was a terrific fight from start to finish. Although Mitchell didn’t get the world title win tonight, it was a terrific effort and he certainly showed what he’s all about, buckets of heart and bravery.
He can definitely come again and showed world class skills and heart, it just wasn’t his night. The damage to his face was too much.
Massive credit to Jorge Linares for coming back to win in such dramatic fashion – a hell of a fighter and champion.
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