Katsidis beats Mitchell by TKO to retain title

LONDON — Michael Katsidis retained the interim WBO lightweight title by stopping Kevin Mitchell in the third round by technical knockout on Saturday. Katsidis inflicted Mitchell's first defeat in 32 fights in a bout in front of a 14,000-strong crowd at the ground of West Ham, the football club supported by the Londoner. Mitchell caught Katsidis with a left hand early in the third round, but the Australian hit back, sending Mitchell back onto the ropes more than once before stunning him with a left hook that led to referee Dave Parris stopping the fight. "I feel I'm the best I've ever been, we've worked hard and I've been away from my family and my new baby girl," the 29-year-old Katsidis said. "I can't leave Britain anyway because of the volcano (affecting plane travel), so I just want to stay here. There's 20-odd thousand passionate people here cheering and supporting the sport I love. I'm just going to enjoy my title, I am the world champion." The 25-year-old Mitchell said his preparations for the fight had not gone well. "With five weeks to go my trainer Jimmy Tibbs said to me you're not preparing properly for this fight, you keep messing around," the British boxer said. "There were things I wasn't doing. I was having a few late nights. I've got a young family and there have been a lot of rows that people don't understand about. That's made things hard." – AP