By Ben Solly: Kevin Mitchell overcame a game challenge from Spanish based Dominican Felix Lora in a hard fought lightweight clash on Friday night.
In front of a packed York Hall in Bethnal Green, London, ’The Hammer’ was made to work hard for a 98-92 points decision, with Lora pressing forward right until the final bell.
The performance was not one for the highlights reel for Mitchell, who at times seemed to be going through the motions in keeping Lora at bay. Nevertheless, Mitchell highlighted some good defensive technique throughout the bout, showing a good adaptability to the obvious threat that Lora presented.
The opening round was a cagey one, with both fighters reluctant to commit themselves too early. Mitchell controlled the round with thoughtful jabs and good body movement, circling away from the big punching Lora. Both fighters continued in the same fashion during the second round, with Lora trying to walk through Mitchell’s jab, and throw big shots on the inside. Mitchell soon had Lora’s attention after a stiff counter left hand dropped the Dominican to the canvas, which seemed to spring Lora into life, and finished the round backing up the home town fighter against the ropes with good work to the body.
Mitchell controlled the third and fourth rounds in a similar fashion to the first, circling away from Lora’s right hand, popping off jabs and countering the work of Lora with carefully placed left hands.
The fifth round was arguably Lora’s best of the fight, as he managed to get closer to Mitchell, backing him up and landing hooks to the body. Mitchell never looked troubled by the work of Lora, either taking the shots on the gloves, or moving out of range for any effective damage to be done, but did seem flustered by the success of Lora. At the end of the round, both fighters squared up touching heads, forcing referee Richie Davies to break the two up and give Mitchell a stern talking to.
Towards the end of the contest Mitchell seemed happy to let the fight go the distance, choosing to continue to box Lora; jab, move and stay out of harms way without really showing any attempt to push for the stoppage.
In the final round, Mitchell finally stepped up the action, again countering Lora with left hands as he waded in clumsily with right hands, landing a hurtful left uppercuts.
Mitchell may feel he could have stopped Lora towards the end of the fight, but will be pleased to have got 10 rounds under his belt ahead of a potential clash with Ricky Burns. The maturity in some of Mitchell’s work tonight Earlier on in the night, London’s Frank Buglioni continued an impressive start to his career, out pointing tough journeyman Ryan Clark over four rounds. The Enfield fighter dominated the bout, dazzling a partisan crowd with crisp combination punching to both body and head. From the outset, Buglioni had Clark backing up against the ropes, with Clark throwing counter shots off the ropes for almost the entire fight. Clark gamely fought through the barrage of punches, and caught Buglioni in the third with a nicely timed counter right hook, which seemed to stun Buglioni momentarily. However, the Buglioni finished strong and closed the fight to earn a well deserved points victory.
