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A packed crowd at the O2 arena saw Kell Brook retain his IBF Welterweight title with a 6th-round stoppage of Frankie Gavin, whilst Britain earned itself another world champion in gifted Lee Selby with the courageous Kevin Mitchell just falling agonizingly short.
It proved to be the formality it was predicted for Brook, who after a couple of cautious opening rounds found his range to discourage the challenger, who knew he was out of his depth.
The Sheffield star stepped up the action in the 5th and ended it in the 6th with some accurate combinations before the referee stepped in.
It’s now hoped that the champion can move onto more enticing battles, after two disappointing routine defences against average competition.
In the chief support bout, special heavyweight talent Anthony Joshua blasted out the durable Kevin Johnson in a brutal two rounds.
Joshua is tipped to reach the very top, and sent out a considerable statement to the rest of the division with ’Kingpin’ having never been stopped, despite being matched against the likes of Vitali Klitschko, Tyson Fury, Dereck Chisora.
Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn said to expect a huge announcement concerning a fight in September.
Could it be against WBC World Champion Deontay Wilder? If so, alarm bells should be ringing for American fight fans.
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In the fight of the night, Kevin Mitchell fell short in his third attempt at winning a world title after he was stopped in the 9th round by WBC title holder Jorge Linares.
After a tentative but intriguing first four rounds, the action exploded into life when Mitchell caught Linares with a short, stinging straight left sending the Venezuelan to the canvas in the fifth. But the three-weight world champion recovered well, forcing a huge and grotesque cut above the left eye of Mitchell.
The damage took its toll in the tenth when a barrage of punches saw a first knockdown for Mitchell, and Victor Loughlin saw fit to wave off what was a fascinating contest.
Lee Selby became the new IBF world featherweight champion, after he won a unanimous technical decision against Evgeny Gradovich.
An accidental headbutt produced a nasty cut on above the left eye of Gradovich, but a dazzling performance from the Welshman saw him walk away with the decision leading 80-72 and 79-73 twice on the scorecards at the time of the stoppage.
It means Selby becomes Wales 12th world champion, alongside greats such as Joe Calzaghe.
Fellow Welshman Nathan Cleverly returned to the light-heavyweight scene after his recent defeat to rival Tony Bellew at cruiserweight.
Cleverly pummelled Tomas Mann in 24 seconds, ending the fight with a vicious left to the body. But that will do little to convince many that he’s ready for a title shot at his favoured weight, with an autumn bout with WBA holder Juergen Braehmer reported to be in negotiations.
In the middleweight division, underdog Nick Blackwell clinched the vacant British middleweight belt after a controversial stoppage win over John Ryder.
Ryder, who was controlling the bout through the first half of the fight, took some heavy shots in the 7th round, and Howard Foster renowned for his highly debatable stoppage of George Groves in his first fight with Carl Froch, stepped in to end the proceedings.
Earlier on the evening, a genuine fifty-fifty battle for the vacant British Lightweight title saw Scott Cardle triumph over Craig Evans in an entertaining bout with all three judges scoring it 116-112, a decision which could have gone either way.
Although the main event didn’t produce, It was a fantastic night of action. We saw toe-to-toe battles, knockdowns, controversy and a new British world champion. When the main event was announced, it received a lot of criticism that it was headlining a pay-per-view package.
However, a wealth of world championship and domestic bouts exceeded expectation, and with Lee Selby and Anthony Joshua majorly impressing British boxing continues to become a force to be reckoned with on the world stage.
