World Weekend Boxing Round-Up: Mitchell Wins Eliminator

England’s Kevin Mitchell headlined this weekend’s Boxing as the West Ham supporter won a WBC lightweight title eliminator in style at the massive O2 Arena in London last night.

The 30 year old local man faced dangerous Mexican slugger Daniel Estrada, who was coming off a failed WBC title clash in which he was KO’d by champion Omar Figueroa in nine rounds.

Estrada came to London with two legendary countrymen, trainer Nacho Beristain and three-weight former world champion Juan Manuel Marquez, but even with the backing of that dynamic duo, the Mexican was no match for a motivated Mitchell.

The local man answered the call of the first bell in fine form, displaying quickness of hand and foot that made the visitor appear slow and awkward in comparison.

The writing was on the wall as early as the second round as Estrada was canvassed. While the lanky Central American showed plenty of toughness and occasional effectiveness, Mitchell was clearly in the midst of a career best performance.

Round after round Estrada was battered until referee Ian John-Lewis called off the one way traffic at 1:12 of the ninth frame.

With the win, Mitchell improves to 39-2 (29), picks up the WBC Silver belt and is now the mandatory challenger to newly-minted WBC champion Jorge Linares.

Chinny-banger Linares, who also held world titles in two lower weight classes, could present Mitchell with a good opportunity to capture the WBC crown as the Venezuelan has been stopped in all three of his losses.

Estrada now stands at 32-4-1 (24).

On the undercard, middleweight John Ryder, 20-1 (12), retained his WBO Intercontinental strap with a one-sided tenth round stoppage of late replacement opponent Billi Godoy, 31-4 (15).

There were also two domestic level light welter bouts on the bill as John Wayne Hibberd, 15-2 (9), halted Tyler Goodjohn, 11-4 (4), in the eighth for the WBC International belt while Tommy Martin, 11-0 (3), outpointed Ricky Boylan, 12-2 (4), by scores of 99-92, 97-93, 97-93 to annex the vacant English title.

There was other action on Saturday as cruiserweight Krzysztof Glowacki, 24-0 (15), decisioned Nuri Seferi, 36-7 (20), over 12 rounds for the WBO European trophy at The Arena in Torun, Poland.

At Club Atletico Alba in Santa Fe, Argentina, Daniela Romina Bermudez, 16-3-2 (5), won a ten round majority decision against Vanesa Lorena Taborda, 8-3 (0), for the WBO Female super fly crown.

Heading half way around the world, we land in Sydney, Australia where one of the world’s top Rugby players continued his Boxing career.

Heavyweight Sonny Bill Williams, 7-0 (3), banged out a wide eight round points verdict against iron-chinned veteran Chauncy Welliver, 55-11-5 (22), at Allphones Arena.

Hopping along to Africa, we land in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania where Nasibu Ramadhani, 15-5-1 (7), won a ten rounder on points against Issa Nampepeche, 19-3-4 (7), for the vacant UBO Africa super bantam prize at Friends Corner Hall.

On Friday, we find ourselves in America, where at Foxwoods Casino in Mashantucket, CT Tony Luis, 19-2 (7), produced an upset by outpointing Karl Dargan, 17-1 (9), for the vacant WBC Continental Americas strap.