The O2 Arena in London saw British fighters go 2-1 in world title fights. In the main event, IBF World Welterweight champion Kell Brook stopped rival Frankie Gavin in the sixth round to make his second successful title defense and move his record to 35-0.
In featherweight, Lee Selby defeated Evgeny Gradovich to earn the IBF World Featherweight title. The fight was stopped in the eighth round after a clash of heads left Gradovich bloody, and the judges cards had Selby comfortably ahead as he had outboxed the champion in every round. Kevin Mitchell fell short in his bid to take the WBC World Lightweight title from Venezuela’s Jorge Linares. Mitchell started out strong, even dropping Linares in the fifth round, but as the fight progressed Linares got back in the fight. The referee stepped in to save a bloodied Mitchell late in the 10th round.
Perhaps the biggest news of the evening came at heavyweight, when Olympic gold medalist and local hero Anthony Joshua knocked out tough veteran Kevin Johnson in the second round to move his record to a perfect 13-0. Joshua has been waxing all of his opponents since turning professional, and he is already being hailed as the next big thing in British Heavyweight boxing. That he would beat Johnson (29-6-1) was almost a given, as he was a massive favorite at the books, but Johnson entered this fight with a resume that includes taking Tyson Fury, Derrick Chisora and Vitaly Klitschko the distance, and he had never been down in his boxing career.
Meanwhile, Joshua had never been beyond the third round in any of his previous 12 fights, so Johnson was viewed as a fighter who would force Joshua to long rounds. Well, Joshua had other plans, as he blasted Johnson from the outset, dropping him twice in the opening round and ending it before the halfway point of Round 2.
Joshua is just 24 years old, and he is booked to fight in Manchester on July 18 on the undercard of the Kiko Martinez vs Scott Quigg WBA Super Bantamweight title fight. After that, promoter Eddie Hearn is promising a big fight for Joshua on September 1th when the O2 Arena is booked again, so you can see that Joshua is now on the fast track at heavyweight and is someone to watch.
